Tela Vasir: Hard Point
by ReadyWriter6
Summary: Recently promoted Council SPECTRE Vasir is asked to investigate the trafficking of illegal arms shipments between a radical militant pro-human terrorist organization and several influential System's Alliance citizens. The mystery continues to grow, along with the danger.(Rated M for Language, Violence, Sexually Suggestive content)
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer**

The author acknowledges lack of ownership of Mass Effect and any associated intellectual property.

Tela Vasir: Hard Point

I

The obsidian expanse of space outlined the hulking expanse of a human made _Valdez _class space freighter, stars faintly lighting up the ugly gray metal exterior as the craft gently spun on it's horizontal axis. The running lights were blacked out and the port holes and exterior viewing panels were shuttered closed. Large pock marks and destroyed GARDIAN laser modules gave evidence to a recent violence committed and a battle lost. The tell tale slight spatial distortion that would usually signify the presence of powerful shields was absent.

The three hundred meter craft was effectively dead in the water, menaced by a much more predatory looking ship situated off of the transport vessels bow. Sleek and graceful are words most would use to describe it; at least compared to the ugly, block-like modular design of the scarred freighter.

The Asari frigate _Maidens Voyage_ rotated in sync with the listing vessel, keeping its primary dorsal mounted gun aligned in an obvious show of force. A threat that seemed to be producing results, the sub-light drives at the rear of the transport had powered down and the front docking bay doors had ground open in silent acquiescence to the implied statement.

Prepare to be boarded.

*()*

"Fuck."

The curse rolls easily off my tongue in a silent prayer as I blow air through clenched teeth directly into my armor's built in respirator. As always the hand me down smells like feet and burnt popcorn, a fact that I'm reminded of as I breathe through my nose to replace the air I just forced out.

I flinch visibly as something suddenly jumps at the corner of my field of vision but relax with a shudder as I realize it's only my H.U.D., counting down the time until my internal oxygen supply runs dry. Twenty two minutes and forty five seconds. Not the most reassuring. I briefly toy with the idea of shutting the timer off, but honestly I'm too scared to let go of my death grip. My omnitool seems miles away from my left hand and I expect the moment I let go it'll be too late.

My hands shake as I pull my arms tighter to my torso, reducing the distance between my shoulder and the polymer foam coated butt-stock of my M-8 Avenger pattern assault rifle. In response the aiming reticule projected on the inside of my helmets twin eyepieces tightens and floats upward, almost to the ceiling of the bulkhead door I was facing. I shift my whole body in agitation and force myself to relax and bring it back on target.

"Easy now FNG. Wait until we at least see tha bastards till ya break down!" Employee Level 3 Rodriguez admonishes over the open comm link, taking note of my tense stance. This of course produces a bout of laughter from a few of the other member of the four man fire team that has been stationed for security at this access junction.

"Stow it Rodriguez!" A no-nonsense female voice cuts through the chatter. That would my Team Leader, Senior Employee Level 1, Ana Ranston. Rodriguez grunts in acknowledgment and shoulders his rifle from behind a pair of transport containers muttering about "Fucking rookies." under his breath.

Slightly embarrassed I jump when I feel a slight pressure on my shoulder and look back to see Ranston resting her hand on my armor's shoulder pad. Like me her rigs painted a light sandy brown with the letters PSG, short for Privaron Security Group, stenciled in bold black letters across the left side of the chest-plate. On the right side is her last name above which sits SEL1 denoting her position in the Corporation's hierarchy.

"It's all going to be fine." her voice is reassuring if a bit forced and I feel a tad bit more steady than I did a second ago "This plan is going to work, it's a good one. Jacobs knows what he's doing, all we have to do is keep up momentum and fight through it." She squeezes my shoulder one more time and let's go before walking back to where Rodriguez is hunkered down.

As far as plans go, I guess it is pretty good.

Shut down the engines and drop shields to allow the boarders entry, meanwhile vent the ship's atmosphere and spread the three teams out along the different access hallways leading to the docking bay. When the enemy realizes there is no atmosphere ship-side, they should assume the ship suffered a catastrophic hit to life support; which would mean substantial casualties due to emergency depressurization. Wait for the pirates to commit to ransacking the cargo bay, then hit them simultaneously from three sides and in the resulting confusion use the chance to escape or at least try to obtain a few hostages for trade for out life. The last one isn't really part of the plan, but to me it sounds good.

Now that I think about it, it's a hell of a great plan, but I still feel like my stomachs about to burst out of my stomach. This was terrible, after four years working for PSG, living an easy life guarding celebrities and diplomats, bad luck had finally come to collect.

My squad has been contracted to guard and secure the _Moonside Glory _and it's cargoas it moves between some shit hole planet in the Attican Traverse and Bucklestien or something; I don't know I really don't ever pay very much attention to the mission briefings.

All I know is as usual it's good credits, forty five thousand credits, especially for only a weeks worth of work. It would take two or three years working in the agro-farms back on Eden Prime to pull that much. It's not the first time I've congratulated myself on dropping out of Vocational Specialization school to pursue a "career" as a private security contractor working for the eighth largest contracting company this side of the galactic center.

Well at least I would be congratulating myself if I hadn't all of a sudden found myself preparing to repel an indeterminate number of blood thirty pirate scum in the oxygen-less confines of a paper thin over-glorified tug boat.

"All team leaders, this is Jacobs" Our Squad leader, Sean Jacobs announces over the communications net "The enemy has entered the docking bay. Camera's show a single shuttle so expect a team to squad sized element. All teams report when in position."

The radio goes silent and the sweat that has been accumulating on my palms feels like it's overwhelming my insulating under-suits powers of absorbency. This is it! Just a few more seconds and I'll be entering into the next room and possibly end up dead.

_'Don't think about it, think about something else! Something else...' _My eyes drift to the right and I find myself looking to my Team Leader for guidance. As if hearing my question she holds up her left hand with the last three fingers extended and I takes a moment for me to kick myself out of my stupor and for four years of training to kick in.

I had learned the "Rolling T" along with many other movement formations and techniques in my initial training workshop I had attended when I first joined the company. Trained by veterans of the Systems Alliance Marines and even a few battered Blue Sun alumni, I know I have what I need to survive. Well at least not die right away. Maybe.

Moving into formation I take the left side of the hallway and cover the right, Rodriguez moves into position the right and orients his avenger to the left. EL2 Tien, the final member of our team comes from the rear where he was pulling rear guard and steps in between the two of us and about a meter behind. Ana stays in the middle as well but increases the distance to five meters behind Tien, facing forward with her weapon held casually in one hand, the other held to the side of her helmet.

"Bravo Team in position." the radio beeps as her message comes across the net, followed shortly by Alpha and Charlie.

I can't believe this is about to happen! I'm about to be put in a life or death situation where it's kill or be killed! I'm a twenty six year old college drop out playing at being a wannabe security guard! I don't know what to do, I shouldn't be here, I can't be here! I don't want to di...!

"Move!" The command snaps me out of the mental torture I was putting myself through as my mind blanks out and I start to move down the corridor, my weapon pointing down towards the closed bulkhead door, the targeting reticule moving from side to side as I move.

I've always been good at following orders, I don't know, it's like it gives me a goal to achieve, something for me to concentrate on. No initiative on my own though. Probably why I succeeded so well in high school but was destined to failure in the self regulated realms of higher education. Hmm, yeah that sounds about right.

I make sure to keep pace with Rodriguez as the shorter man is setting the pace. In a couple of strides we reach the door, Rodriguez places his hand over the doors holographic interface, hovering over the activation button.

"Go." Ana whispers, though it's quite necessary, our helmets are air tight _**and**_ in a vacuum but it fits the desperate feel of the situation so I don't waste a second thought on it.

The door slides open and we rush in. I go to the left, Rodriguez to the right and Tien right down the center.

We see them before they see us, as Jacobs predicted four of them are busy trying to open one of the cargo containers while another six stand guard. I let out a mental sigh of relief as discount one of the terrible possibilities I had been contemplating. No Krogans. I'm terrified and I've only read about these vicious alien animals on the Extra-net. Nope. As soon as the enemies come into sight my H.U.D. adjusts and begins marking targets with red triangles. Distances begin to pop up next to them and I'm glad I paid a little extra to have this advanced software upgrade installed. Better than spending it on chems and booze I guess.

We rush to the first row of containers and take cover behind the sturdy steel boxes. I peek over the top of the container just in time to see Charlie and Alpha squads emerge from the other side of the room.

I guess they didn't have very much luck on their side, as soon as they entered the room one of the women, yes women, raised her rifle and released a long burst of fire towards the encroaching PSG employees. Immediately the other nine armored invaders snapped to, directing a sudden and overwhelming mass of fire at Alpha and Charlie before they had a chance to make it to cover behind the cargo containers. Two of the eight squaddies were knocked down, killed instantly as their shields failed and their armor was ripped to shreds as the pirates concentrated their fire. Upon depressurization the rapid change in pressure caused their wounds to expand and pop, turning them into little blood fountains as the liquid was sucked out of the rounds exit point and sprayed all over their comrades all before their armors Auto-Aid and repair systems had a chance to react. Not exactly heartening.

Neither was seeing the tell tale glow of biotics surround one of the attackers, followed moments later with an explosive distortion as she launched a ball of glittering, something, that seemed to track the movement of it's victim. When it hit it jerked the poor bastard back before ripping him to shreds with a powerful explosion. Literally to shreds, not limbs, shreds.

"Fire!" The command roared over the net as Ana opened up on the pirate bastards, soon joined by the rest of the team. Even I found myself joining in, sending an ill aimed volley careening into the shields of one of the women, this one dressed in a streamlined blue and white armor set. As the rounds bounced of her kinetic barriers, she whipped around and in good time about half of the attackers managed to get behind cover and start returning fire.

However the distraction worked well enough and allowed the two wounded teams to reach cover on the other side of the cargo hold. In addition one of the boarders was down, dispatched with a well placed burst by Ana and Tien. Purplish blue blood spurted out from the stump of a severed arm as the woman, no alien, attempted to staunch of life fluids from both her arm and credit chip sized hole on its abdomen.

_'Asari' _I mused, _'Probably Eclipse or Sirens' _More than likely Eclipse with their light yellowish light armor plating.

One of the other creatures grabbed it's compatriot and started to pull it to safety only to fall flat on its face as a burst fired by one of the other teams punched right through its barriers and blew out through its chest plate, killing the thing instantly.

Any jubilation however was discarded almost immediately as Tien's head simply exploded. I guess that's what happens when a grain of sand propelled to the speed of light passes right through a man's cranium and figuratively pops his cork. His limp body dropped to the ground and I stared at it with a strange detachment.

I don't know why but I don't really care. I know it seems horrible but I didn't. Instead I just wanted to get this over with as soon as possible. My back aches from this damn armor and my rifles getting heavy. We gotta get moving.

"Sir! I'm gonna bound!" I yell and in a few seconds a marker appears on my H.U.D. with a blue arrow.

"Roger we'll cover you!" SLE1 Ranston shouts back, she and Rodriguez both leap out of cover and begin to fire, causing several of the aliens to duck behind cover to avoid the slugs.

Vaulting over one of the lower cargo containers, I rush for a few seconds before sliding into position behind a large red container. After a brief pause to cause to catch my breath, I take a knee and start firing around the side of the storage unit. Hey I'll admit my shots are wild, but that's okay because it's doing a damn fine job at suppressing the enemy.

"Set!" I shout over the net, probably a little louder than I need to but it gets the message across none the less, as I continue to fire. Pushing my weapon almost to overheating I manage to continue firing long enough for Rodriguez and Ana to move up on line with me.

At this time I had lost track of the other two teams as they had moved behind a couple of the large red containers. I guess they were alive though, as the majority of the alien invaders had oriented themselves facing away from us. Which made it pretty easy for our side to take advantage of their unprotected backs.

Not to say that the aliens were making it too easy. They bobbed and weaved with an almost unnatural grace. Well it would be unnatural, or at least un-earthly. Funny coming from a guy who's never been there, but hypocrites come from all walks of life.

The tall one in the white and blue armor was especially difficult to pin down. Cartwheeling with an excessively flamboyant flourish it avoided a hastily launched concussive shot and shot a volley of Inferno laced armored piercing rounds from her SMG. The rate of fire coming across the room slackened slightly and I just knew that had been a kill.

I tried to track it as it bounded back after fired but the two rounds that impacted merely dissipated off some shiny glowy blue tinged biotic barrier of some sort.

_'Never seen that before.'_ I wondered pumping more rounds into the loading dolly that the alien had dived behind. I was starting to feel useless, my frustration growing as I became seemingly impotent to end this. Unable to even do damage to these foreign attackers.

_'Calm down, breathe in, breathe out, at the height of your exhalation, pull the trigger.' _I inhaled and _POOF! _had to duck as a round blew a chunk out of the shipping container and slammed into my helmet.

Blind-firing, I held my weapon around the corner and squeezed off a burst, then retracted and waited until Rodriguez and Ana began to fire. My weapon sufficiently cooled, I popped out again and scanned for a target, slowing my breath in preparation. The reticule comes to a stop over one of the barriers where I can just make out the edge of one of the aliens helmets below the lip. I pause and wait as a fragmentation grenade explodes inside the aliens hasty defensive perimeter. As the grenade detonated without a medium to transfer the shock wave the effects are lessened.

However shrapnel moving faster than the speed of sound is no joke itself, the alien who was just out of my sights learns.

Knocked off balanced by the grenade the squid head falls back and right into my reticule, landing on it's rear end. Its shoulders and head form a perfect triangle and my finger squeezes.

Now I swear time slowed down and I pictured a surprised female alien face before just after a moments hesitation I applied 5.6 pounds of pressure to the trigger and sent the rounds on their way.

The aliens brain matter was evacuated onto the ground as it gently fell; splaying on the ground as if laying down to sleep. I felt bad, if I was being honest with myself, maybe a little bit. Would of felt worse if I currently wasn't in a life or death situation. It was the first time I killed something and I couldn't help but think that was important in some way. But anyways that could wait until later. It was time to fight.

This whole time my heart had been pounding like an Expel 10 track and I have no way of knowing how much time has passed. It could have been 10 seconds or 10 minutes for all I knew.

A beeping alarm sounded in my ear as my omni-tool linked weapon informed me that it had overheated. It's the year 2170 and we still don't have a reliable way to keep a weapon from overheating every five minutes. With a tangible physical click the heat diffusing paddles retracted back into the Avengers side panels and I took this moment to move to the other side of the storage container. As I laid in the prone to mix up my silhouette I noticed with some despair that the Asari had continued to throw Warps and small arms fire into Alpha and Charlie squads. While I was waiting for my rifle to cool, the invaders had lost one. Meanwhile I could count at least 4 dead PSG squaddies splayed out in front of where they were pinned down.

I checked my life-support counter, seventeen minutes and twenty two seconds. Only five minutes? Maybe time had slowed.

I ducked back as the only blue armored alien threw a warp followed by a shot by its pistol, its SMG missing in action. The shot missed by a scant few centimeters, I could swear I saw it pass as it flew by; the heat of the Incendiary round on my face.

Seeing that it had forced me back behind cover for the moment, the alien spun about and gracefully threw a pulsing ball of light towards Alpha and Charlie, which upon reaching the container imploded into a singularity f some kind. My jaw dropped and hit the bottom of my face plate.

To wield that much destructive power...it was crazy. I watched in fear as six bodies were ripped out from behind their cover and literally crushed into powder as their body's were sucked into a miniature black hole.

_'Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit!' _I'm gonna die I think. I start firing, trying to bring white plated Asari down. Like before though his rounds simply bounced off of powerful biotic barriers, reinforcing the idea that this creature was invincible.

The fire from the other side of the cargo bay had stopped, the PSG employees located there either dead or too wounded to resist any more. Either way the remaining a boarders were now free to focus fire on Bravo.

"Sir, what're we going to to do!" I shout over the radio. Panic had begun to take hold, there was

still six alien's remained and only three PSG squaddies left. There's no way we could beat them by ourselves, that blue banshee alone could of more than likely wiped us out. Game over man, game over.

I had been able to forget about my fear for a while but now it was creeping back in. I had to lean against the container to steady my trembling hands. No longer could I aim, the pressure was too great. So I contented myself to merely blind fire, ducking back further behind the cover as an especially large warp whizzed past.

"Sir! What are we going to do!" I ask again; hoping for a "fall back" or maybe even a "surrender", but when no answer came in a few seconds I glanced over. I guess I shouldn't of expected anything else. Ana laid slumped over the low barrier she had been taking refuge behind, obviously dead if the large pool of red liquid slowly growing under her limp form. Once again the sub par medical intervention system of the PSG armor failing to do an adequate job.

Rodriguez was a little farther past, clutching something on his helmet and slowly rocking back and forth. A tiny rivulet of blood poured from under his hand and I could guess that he wasn't long for the world.

Seeing no help was coming from there, the panic really began to set in. Really the only thing keeping me going was the fear of dying. I guess I just wasn't as good at it as the others.

Chuckling at my own morose sense of humor I was somewhat surprised when the top of the container next to me exploded in a shower of twisted metal and broken tubing and out poured a horde of chattering, clacking, insecticide, monstrosities.

Actually I was very surprised, so surprised to the point where I nearly did stain the inside of my armor.

_'What the hell are these things?' _I hate it's bugs and these things were huge! Coming up to my chest, with four legs and two arms; they were like ugly lobster monsters. _'That's what we were transporting? What the hell!?'_

The things continued to stream from the wrecked container, first one and two, then a dozen and even more. A particularly ugly brute, all mottled blood red, turned it's mufti-faceted eye's towards me.

I wasn't having any of that, so I backed away, scurrying to the bulkhead. The big monster, though was more concerned with the wounded Rodriguez, who upon seeing the monstrosity attempted to stand on wobbling legs but was rendered prone as his appendages betrayed him.

"No, no! Get it away!" the man cried and fell on his hands and knees, frantically attempting to crawl away from the encroaching death. He wasn't nearly fast enough and I was forced to watch in horror and some fascination as the crazed monster pounced on the unfortunate man; proceeding to tear it him from limb to limb.

Not stopping at merely mutilating the corpse the crazed creature began to feed immediately, a large proboscis like appendage protruding from between a pair of four limber sharp tipped mandibles. With a shivering contracting movement tubes opened up on either side of this straw like aperture.

Soon enough thick mucous like streams of yellowish bile began to stream forth and pour on the tattered remains of Rodriguez's bisected torso. The bubbling, steaming concoction of unknown filth hit the cadaver and immediately ate through the ceramic plating of the armor and reached the soft flesh below, liquifying the entire thing in a matter of seconds.

What remained was a stinking pile of vomit colored liquid, where chunks of still melting organs and equipment slowing simmered. Not that I could smell it, but for some reason I doubted it smelled like potpourri and sunshine. The bug didn't seem to mind the smell or the taste as it attacked the sludge with a zest like I'd never seen, the crude straw like appendage sucking up the liquid in an almost comical fashion; the worlds most terrifying vacuum cleaner.

All this time I hadn't moved, as my terror meter had reached new heights. More and more of the freaky bugs streamed forth from the cracked container. Most heading towards the Asari, but a few small green variations streaming off to help big, dumb and ugly lap up the stewing remains of Rodriguez.

Realizing that I had better move away from the crazed feeding frenzy, I began to crawl away, intent on reaching the door from which we had entered just minutes ago. Going is slow and my life-support timer has moved to fifteen minutes and thirty seconds.

My heart pounding, I chance a quick glance back. So far so good, none of the little bastards has noticed me. I speed up, but a hustle in my step as I start to move faster, breaking into a crouched run as I approach the door.

Another glance back; I guess my luck has finally run out. Two of the small green variations have spotted me and are moving swiftly in pursuit. Seeing that it was hopeless to try for stealth anymore I start sprinting reaching the door in no time at all. Scrabbling for control I slam my hand into the open button and beat feat as the door opens.

Except it doesn't open and my head and chest slam into the orange "locked" holographic symbol.

_'What the hell?' _We had been locked in? But why? The room was already depressurized so there was no way for them to vent the hanger even if they wanted to. Spinning around I face the oncoming threat, my gut telling me that I had been left to die!

"Die you six legged pieces of shit!" I scream into an empty comm net and fire a wild burst at the aliens. I hit the lead one dead on and it unexpectedly explodes into chunks of chitinous flesh and fine green mist.

Green mist that begins to eat through the reinforced steel floor at an alarming rate. Ignoring the death of its buddy the second alien charges on through the mist and with a burst of unbelievable speed manages to latch onto my forearm, the armor sizzling and popping as the creatures mandibles dripped the same, albeit let concentrated venom as it's larger brother. The force it was applying was incredible and I could actually feel my bones grinding as the armor plating cracked and bent.

I couldn't shoot it, doing so would probably mean instant death. So I did the next best thing and punted the beastie as hard as I could. Hard enough that the smaller creatures head actually separated from it's abdomen. Not that the jaws itself let go, no that would be too easy. Stubbornly refusing to quit even in death the mandibles continued to leak caustic fluids all over my arm and before I knew it my flesh was burning with the pain of a thousand paper cuts. Using my considerable muscles I finally managed to pry the dis-attached head off.

Taking a moment I inspected the wound, thankful that my suits compartmentalization had worked as advertised, sealing the affected area with a slurry of medi-gel and sealing agents. However I had lost quite a bit of oxygen due to the breach, the timer down to ten minutes.

When I looked up I found I had much bigger problems than Asari pirates, being locked or good old asphyxiation. Two of the huge red-brown monstrosities were currently lunging for my face, sharp fiercely hooked claws spearing towards my inadequately armored chest.

I looked down at the letters on my right pectoral, MILLER, that is Joseph Miller, college drop-out and underpaid mercenary. I think I"m going to die.

Yeah definitely.

Or I would of; if the whole world hadn't turned upside down and everything sent flying uncontrollably. I figured it was the artificial gravity that had wonked out; probably something to do with the ceiling of the cargo bay suddenly exploding outward and peeling outwards like a skinned orange in an explosion of metal shards and rending sparks.

Beyond lay the open void of space, dark and foreboding. I found myself falling towards this abyss with no recourse, halfway through entered zero gravity as I left the sphere of influence of the gravity field. Somewhere along the way the power had failed and in addition the lights had quit working. Sensing this my armor switched to night vision, taking ambient light from the stars outside with thermal imaging and converting the world into a sickly shade of green and white.

I flailed for anything to grab as I was propelled up! Luckily I managed to kick off a floating container and change my trajectory to instead land on the jagged edge of destroyed ceiling. However with no way to stop I merely smashed head first. Stars blossomed all over my vision and I didn't even notice as the gravity shut off completely. Floating like a lost plain lands gasbag, surrounded by monsters and enemies, all alone, in the dark.

*()*

Twelve thousand meters away a sinister cruiser sized vessel opened its heat sinks and dissipated the heat built up from firing it's main spinal gun. Off in the distance, well beyond the view of the naked eye, the _Maidens Run's _bisected hull slowly drifted apart.

It was a shame that the freighter had been damaged in the blast, some of the cargo would be unrecoverable; which was an unforgivable loss of capital in an otherwise very sensitive venture.

_'It was fortunate however that we managed to catch it this early.'_ Deep within the confines of the vessels CIC, a tall, craggy man leaned against a pedestal projecting a holographic representation of the wounded transport and the now neutralized pirate vessel. "Launch the recovery teams and move within visual distance to the target."

"Aye, aye, sir!" the helmsman acknowledged, working the controls to nudge the six hundred meter cruiser into

It was unfortunate that those pirates had managed to pick this particular transport out could be put down to just plain bad luck. However he had never been one to look blindly away from coincidence, there was a very real possibility that this was orchestrated by another outside factor. There was no need to take any chances. They had fired immediately from exiting FTL, the coordinates preplanned with help from their operative on the Transports crew, but still better to not take chances. He would have the marines sanitize the entire ship, crew and all. His men and women had been hand picked for this mission, fanatically loyal to the cause, so he couldn't predict any sort of disobedience.

_'After all, we will not fail.' _the gaunt man wiped some dandruff off of his pristine white dress uniform, hand absentmindedly brushing across a golden pin tacked to his lapel.

The letters T.F. emblazoned over a golden earth.

'_We have so much more work to do.'_

_FIN_

_06JUN14 - Fixed formatting issues_


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer**

The author acknowledges lack of ownership of Mass Effect and any associated intellectual property.

Tela Vasir: Hard Point

II

Tela Vasir pulled her armor up over her head and dropped it wearily on sore shoulders. The past few weeks had been stressful for the newly appointed SPECTRE and she was feeling it all throughout her body. At two hundred and five such a responsibility was a heavy burden to bear for the young Asari maiden.

Working to fasten the connecters between the top and bottom halves of her custom made Hahne-Kedar Specter armor, she sighed as the last one snapped in place and the two halves sealed together, pulling the loose material tight and making the whole system air tight.

"_Lady_ Vasir we have reached the coordinates you supplied." The captain of the _Maidens Voyage_, an Matron aged Eclipse captain by the name of Esra, sneered. Two weeks ago Tela had contracted her along with a crew of thirty, five of those being ex-commandos. She had received her current mission a week before that, her first official operation to date.

The STG had been monitoring communications between several influential Systems Alliance civilians and a militant para-military group out in the Terminus systems. The transmissions detailed several shipments of illegal arms from the galactic rim into Citadel space.

Wishing for more direct action and seeing this as a good test for their newest SPECTRE, the council had tasked Tela with investigating and stopping the shipments, determining the culpability and identities of all Alliance officials involved and finally assessing and creating a dossier on this "Terran Heart". The group was a relative unknown and had first popped up a few years ago in a video claiming responsibility for a bombing of the Batarian border colony of Su' Kesh. The attack had been professionally done, five IED's planted in sections of the city's transport tube system. Multiple other devices had been left at hospitals and police stations. All the charges were rigged to detonate simultaneously, plunging the entire city into chaos.

At the end of the day more than two hundred batarians were killed or injured. Closer examination of the explosive residue revealed that military grade explosives had been utilized and the triggering mechanisms were too complicated to be an amateur job.

The first order of business had been to locate one of the transports and intercept it in route. She had sent in a tasking to the assigned STG intel section to filter through the communiques and look for something denoting a specific shipping route that the transports would take.

A break in the case had came when she received an message from the task section. A small security company based out of the Skyllian Verge, Privaron Security Group, had been contacted to provide security for a vessel called the _Moonside Glory_ as it left Fehl Prime in the Terminus Systems to Bekenstien. The company that contracted the mercs was Westablish Industries, a relatively small subsidiary of the mega-corporation Genex Chemical. The only reason that the connection had been made was when some Salarian analyst had in a complete stroke of luck had matched certain Extra-net servers that had handled the Terran Heart messages and the Westablish correspondence with Privaron.

From there it was easy to plot an intercept course and charter a Eclipse merc band to ferry her out to the point of capture and conduct a boarding action. She had picked this particular band due to the capabilities of their Serenity Class frigate and the all Asari crew. Though in hindsight perhaps this hadn't been the best choice. The captain, Esra, had made it a point to point out that she was Tela's senior at every available opportunity. The rest of the crew, especially the commandos had picked up on it and it was not helping her ever growing headache.

"Security should be light, for the amount Westablish paid to PSG. Expect no more to than a squad of light armored troops." Tela racked the slide on her M-4 Shuriken sub-gun and attached it to her back before picking up a pistol off the armory table. Placing it in a leather holster attached to her hip, she turned to where the rest of the assault squad was making finishing touches to their armor and weapons. "We will attack in two waves, Esra will lead the first team and establish a beachhead in the hanger. When they have secured the cargo bay, I will lead the second team and begin clearing to the bridge. When we secure the..."

One of the asari commandos snorted; her scaly appearance and deep voice marking her Krogan ancestry. "I've been killing before your mother started stripping at the citadel _SPECTRE_!" The large woman looked expectantly to her fellow mercenaries, bolstered by her friends laughter even in the face of a Council SPECTRE.

"We don't need any sort of wet behind the ears council lackey telling us what to do." Another woman with deep red tribal tattoos on her face muttered as she slapped her helmet into place. Tela scowled and did the same, not giving the other women the satisfaction of seeing her anger.

_"__Pureblood bitch."_ It was a vile whisper, she couldn't tell who said it as it was broadcast of the public comms net.

It made her cringe, it had been a long time since she had heard that. Hazy memories of a distant childhood and a difficult college years. Even serving in her mothers warrior band she had had trouble.

Interesting fact about Asari, though they outlived modern humans by a margin of five, their brains were remarkably similar. With that their memory was also faulted and after a few centuries things began to become hazy.

_'Not that some things are worth remembering. Better off to forget...'_ Tela's quiet moment of introspection was interrupted as captain Esra entered, cradling her Vindicator sniper rifle in her arms.

"Stow that shit girls! Remember this is _SPECTRE_ Vasir. Show the lady some respect!" Tela would of thanked the older warrior but the sarcastic laughter and insincere affirmations pretty much invalidated that.

Esra ordered the commandos to load up in the shuttle. As the squad moved out she pulled Tela roughly aside. "Now look Lady Vasir, you may be a spectre but this is my ship and these are my troops. " The merc pushed her up against the edge of the shuttle "We are going to do this my way or you can find another crew stupid enough to work for this kind of money!" Tela's hand inched towards her holstered pistol. One biotic push, a warp to weaken her armor and a well placed shot between the eyes.

Esra's face was inches away from Tela's and she couldn't help but blush. Thank god for opaque visors. Her hand dropped from her pistol as she realized that maybe the wisest course of action would be a non-violent approach. Justice could be meted out later, but for now this was her best chance at completing her mission. Any delay could mean she could miss this opportunity and she had no idea if she'd get another chance like this.

"I will defer to you in this matter Esra." she stated and put as much menace behind her voice as she could muster.. "But after this we will have words."

"I look forward to it." Esra gave a toothy grin and turned to board the shuttle.

_'Words indeed.' _Tela patted her sidearm and followed the merc into the shuttle.

*()*

_'Yeah this was a great plan!' _Tela mentally sneered, ducking behind a trio of barrels before leaning out to snap off a shot at the human mercs taking cover behind the containers at the edge of the loading bay.

Behind her, two of the commandos lay in a pool of blood, killed by the security forces when they ambushed her and the Eclipse. One of them was the Krogan spawn and she couldn't say she felt that bad. What was bothering her was Esra and her bullheaded idiocy which had led to their current predicament.

The captain had insisted on strong arming the boarding action, sending the entire party in instead of splitting the squad into two halves. Her idea was to overwhelm the defenders in one fell swoop, gambling on using shock and awe to crush the defenders. Instead they had found the cargo hold abandoned and void of atmosphere to boot. Esra had boasted that the initial volley the _Maidens Run _had hit the transport when she exited faster than light must of knocked out the life support, killing most of the crew unawares.

Apparently this had been planned however, for when they had began to inspect the cargo containers the enviro-suited humans had rushed in and caught the unprepared boarders in a deadly crossfire.

She had to give the Eclipse sisters credit though, they responded like the trained professionals they were, establishing a base of fire and using their biotics to tear the resistance to shreds.

Seeing a human shooting from around the corner of one of the large red containers, Tela gathered the energy needed for a warp in her left hand and sighted with her pistol. Her SMG had jammed a little while into the firefight and she had thrown it away in frustration.

Firing a duo of shots to flush the merc out, she launched the warp, guiding it to the target. She was mildly surprised when the alien ducked back behind cover, the glowing projectile missing by scant centimeters.

_' Tch. Well, if at first you don't succeed...'_ she readied a push that would slam the container into the wall and crush the alien to paste. However her biotic barriers flared and she had to duck behind cover, her attention pulled back to the larger group of humans on the other side.

Tela brought her thoughts back to the present and settled her mind. With a grunt of exertion she thought into being a mighty singularity then launched it into the crowd of brown uniformed mercenaries clustered at the edge of the docking bay.

The ball of swirling energy exploded in a satisfying manner, tearing the remaining defenders apart and effectively silencing that side of the bay. Grinning from the tingling after effects of biotic over exertion, she re-oriented herself the other way. Hopefully they could mop up this up quickly and move to secure the rest of the ship and pacify the rest of the crew. She would like to secure at least a few prisoners but that was becoming less likely by the limit. Another of the Eclipse mercs were down and the other Asari were baying for blood.

Her biotic barriers lit up once again as the stubborn alien tagged her again. Tela grunted in annoyance. At least it looked like he was the only one left.

Gathering the energy for one last biotic lift, she prepared to finish this.

Just then the top of the container the lone human was hiding behind exploded outwards and out crawled some kind of creature. It paused on top of the storage container for a second before jumping down off the container and onto one of the wounded humans. Tela watched in horror as the creature tore the security guard into pieces.

Her eyes were pulled away though from the macabre scene as another of the monstrosities emerged from the box, then another and another. With a start the Spectre realized where she had seen the creatures before.

A long time ago, back in school actually, she had been taught about the great wars and conflicts that the Asari and the rest of the Citadel Council nations had participated over the years. The greatest and most costly which was the Rachni wars.

_'Rachni? Here? Impossible! They were exterminated!?' _Tela's mouth was left hanging open. The Rachni had been long declared extinct, exterminated by the Krogan because the Council determined that they were too dangerous to show mercy to. _'It was possible that some small colony survived, but what were they doing aboard a transport vessel bound for one of the most decadent and expensive tourism planets in the galaxy?' _

Once again the Asari commandos showed their worth however, recovering from the shock of seeing such outlandish creatures and arraying themselves back on line. If the Rachni were impressed they didn't show it, charging towards the mercs in a mad rush. Massed fire managed to put down two of the beasts before they were on them.

Tela smashed on Rachni with an over powered push, slamming it into two of its brethren and sending them flying across the decking. Next to her a commando attempted a similar maneuver but was taken aback by the alien bug's abnormally quick reflexes. Before Tela could even blink the monster had speared the Eclipse mercenary right through the heart, kinetic barriers doing nothing to stop the things crushing weight and razor sharp claws. Raising back on it's hind legs the insect wrenched the dead Asari of the ground and tossed her limp body off to the side.

Avenging the death of her fellow Asari with a well placed incendiary round to the head, Tela watched all around her as the mercs were overwhelmed by the sheer numbers of Rachni, big and little, pouring out of the containers. Yes containers, as the monsters blood lust seemed to have awakened the rest of the horde and they were ripping out the sides of the surprisingly brittle storage boxes.

_'Almost as if they wanted these creatures to escape.' _Tela wondered, firing with unwavering aim, keeping her cool even in the face of these strange and overwhelming events. A warp exploded after being shot with her pistol, stringy guts flying everywhere.

"Captain, abort the mission. Get your women to the shuttle!" This mission had turned into a complete massacre, she felt partly responsible for the mercs demise. If only she hadn't given into the Captain's pressuring, most of the boarding party would have been spared. Taking a breath, Tela gritted her teeth and released a one hundred and eighty degree push that sent the Rachni currently engaged in a fierce melee battle with the Asari soldier flying back. "Go! I will cover you!"

For once not debating the order, Esra ordered her remaining five sisters to fall back, the Asari throwing caution and tactics to the wind in a mad rush to the relative safety of the idling shuttle. The shuttle pilot, monitoring the situation over the radio and more than likely frantic to do anything to help, dropped the craft's ramp.

They would of made it, but fortune was not going to shine on the mercs that day, as suddenly as a lightning bolt the ship was rocked by a colossal force. A large portion of the ceiling was torn away in a violent explosion, the void of space easily visible beyond. Tela's stomach lurched as the ship's artificial gravity malfunction and sent her and the rest of the Asari warriors careening up towards the black maw. The Spectre sped upwards and quickly reached the tear in the ceiling, imminent doom readily apparent.

_'I will not die that easily!'_ Tela stubbornly proclaimed, taking a gamble she launched a biotic pull. Aimed at the quickly shrinking ground the manipulation made contacted and yanked her violently down back towards the deck. As she crashed into the now null gravitation field, the rest of her crew continued their ascent.

"Esra! Use your biotics!" She yelled as the mercs passed through the tear in the ceiling, frantically trying to save someone. "Anyone! Use your biotics to pull!" However her cries were ignored, the communications flooded with desperate pleas for help, cries to the Goddess for help and incredibly angry curses directed at her, Esra and everything. Soon the rabid chatter turned to crying and whimpering as the incredibly cold grip of space started to overpower the light armor that the mercenaries wore. Lacking proper EVA suits they didn't last long and Tela shivered at such a terrible fate. Even though they were uncouth and disrespectful scum, they didn't deserve to die like that.

Tapping a button on her omni-tool she activated her armors magnetic boots. A quick glance around showed that most of the Rachni had been vented along with her squad and the human security forces corpses. The rest of the Rachni had taken to clinging to the walls and ceiling remains. For the first time she noticed that the vicious bugs had apparently little difficulty breathing in a vacuum.

She had to get out of here. Even now the Rachni were recovering from their disorientation, powerful claws digging into the steel floor allowing locomotion even in the zero-g environment. Two of them started moving towards her. The closest one reared its head back and launched a steaming ball of bile, intent at splattering the nimble Spectre. Seeing the attack coming, Tela gracefully back flipped and avoided the acid spray. She landed in a crouch and killed the offending alien with a well placed shot.

Deciding now was the time to break contact she deactivated her magnetic boots and pushed off the ground, speeding towards the waiting shuttles open doors. The powerful docking tethers had kept it stationary even during the gravity systems overload. Reaching it, she barreled on-board, wasting no time in ordering the pilot to take off.

Someone had to tell the Council about what was going on. This new Rachni threat and the nefarious implications of such organisms aboard a vessel bound for a heavily populated world in the same system as the Citadel itself.

*()*

Miller rubbed his head, a pointless gesture seeing as he was still wearing his helmet. However the stars had cleared from his vision and he took a moment to collect himself. Steadying himself against the wall he noticed startlingly that the artificial gravity had completely shut off.

He wasn't the only one stuck in a precarious situation, the creatures stuck to the walls and ceiling, slowly orienting themselves to the floor in some instinctual urge. It seemed though that the majority of bugs had been sucked out of the hull breach. However the ones that remained were slowly showing signs of life, the freezing cold that had started to seep into his bones not seeming to affect them in the slightest. His life support gauge was down to five minutes; just to add a little spice to the situation.

_'I gotta get out of here.' _he thought, magnetizing his boots and sticking to the wall he was nearest to. _'Maybe that I can hitch a ride.' _The shuttle that the Asari had originally arrived was still where it had landed. The ramp was still down and as he watched the blue and white armored Asari, the lone survivor of the alien boarding party, land hard on her feet, kill a bug with a perfect head-shot and then propel herself into the open shuttle door. All without any pause or hesitation. _'Okay that was somewhat impressive.'_

The shuttle was his last chance. The cold had begun to really set in now, the only reason he hadn't devolved into hypodermic shock was the residual heat from the ships climate control. He could feel it in his bones, his extremities going numb one by one starting with his fingers and toes. It wouldn't be long now before he couldn't think let alone move. He had to get to the shuttle and get inside somehow.

Running down the wall, Miller reached the halfway point and deactivated his mag-boots. By this time the giant insects had fully come to. Pincers and antennae searched for him as he flew over their heads. One particularly enterprising specimen launched a gob of acid at him, the potent chemicals splashing over his armors shoulder and chest. Immediately the armor began to sizzle and warp as the ceramic material bubbled away.

Miller hit the ground hard and went head over heels. The acid continued to burn through the armor and he had to think fast. After a second it came to him and as he struggled to his feet and started stumbling away. Reaching under his armpit he opened a compartment on his armor and twisted the knob inside, first clockwise then counter clockwise. With a pop the two sides of his armor split down the middle and floated away , leaving him in his insulated under suit. Just in time, as he ran past the armor on the plates burned all the way through.

Rushing past he watching in dismay as the shuttles ramp began to close and the craft slowly lifted up off the deck. Fear made his feet fly as he rushed to make it before it was too late. A bug got in his way but he merely lowered his shoulder and bowled it over. The creature was ripped off the ground and sent flying. Joseph continued on, weaving and bobbing as more bugs tried to tie him up. Ten meters away and the shuttle continued to rise, two meters away and he jumped for all he was worth. He stretched his fingers out and willed them to extend.

He continued to float up in the zero-g, the edge of the ramp just scant inches away. Instead fate shit on him again and the artificial gravity chose that moment to reboot. Immediately he felt the weight return to his body and begin to fall.

"No!" he screamed as the shuttle finished its ascent and began to orient itself out towards the breach. He wouldn't last long and he knew it. His oxygen reserve was down to four minutes and his body was like an ice cube. He had to concentrate just to keep his eyes open and his breathing was getting shallower with every second. His more immediate concern was the five bugs who had regrouped and were slowly encircling the lone PSG employee. They moved in a rough circular pattern and just stopped, feelers moving agitatedly as they stood stark still. As if neither side wanted to make the first move.

"Come on you arthropodic assholes!" Joseph tucked his Avenger into his shoulder and fired, his shot group tight and accurate. "I'm not going to die! Not here, not now!" One of bug's abdomens exploded out its back and the spell was broken, the two sides met in a clash of titanic violent energies. Miller charged the insect's lines, firing from the hip as he stoically advanced.

For some reason he didn't feel the same fear he had been feeling in the hallway.

He reached the first of creatures and ducked below a vicious swipe,

He didn't shake or hesitate.

Pirouetting on the ball of the food he got behind the insect and stitched it with a burst that blew two of the things legs off. It lay twitching in pile of gooey viscera.

It was like there wasn't any doubt of the outcome so there was no need to fear.

The second monster came for him and he met it head on. Curtailing it's momentum before it could strike, he bashed in what it had for a face with the butt-stock. The creature reeled and he hit it again this time putting it down for the count.

A burning pain forced him down to one knee as his H.U.D. informed him that he was now out of medi-gel. Grunting in pain he sprayed a burst into the monsters torso sending it skittering away where it collapsed. When it left though it tore a giant chunk out of his thigh where it had impaled him. Thankfully the medi-gel and sealant his suit had administered was still working, but he would undoubtedly be in trouble if he didn't get help soon.

Not that it would matter in a few minutes anyways. Still there was nothing to lose as the final oversized insect prepared to hock a nasty acidic surprise. From the knee he fell right on his belly and propped himself up on his elbows. The acid blob passed right over him and he felt a few drips hit his back as it went. However he had a bead on the bastard and blew it to pieces with a continuous burst.

He held down the trigger until the weapon shut down from overheating with a disappointing shake and the bug had disintegrated into a pile of shuddering organs.

Miller sighed and tossed the weapon off to the side. His body had warmed slightly while he was being active but now the sweat only made it worse and he had started shivering. Breathing heavily he had used up more of his oxygen supply and the timer read one thirty.

_'Whatever.' _The blood loss and lack oxygen put him in a hazy daze. So comfortable, he had stopped shivering and actually felt warm.

With nothing else to do he laid back and watched the timer count down to zero.

*()*

Tela Vasir directed the pilot, a young maiden named Levra, to take off as they both rushed to the cockpit. The violet skinned pilot hopped nimbly over the seat and slammed her palm on the ramp control mechanism. The asari's vacuum sealed flight suit slipped on the slick material of the shuttles seat and she bumped comically into the control yoke. This elicited a yelp and a nervous giggle as she strapped herself in.

"We need to get out of here!" the pilot squeaked, flipping various toggles and mashing buttons as she prepped the craft for take off. "The last transmission from the _Run_showed a cruiser exiting FTL nearby!" she shifted nervously "She didn't stand a chance against those guns and we would have a better chance to get a Krogan, a Salarian and a Turian to become bondmates!"

Smoothly the shuttle pulled away and Levra nudged the craft into position in front of the hull breach. Tela sighed, the mission was a Pyrrhic victory at best. Though she had gained invaluable information on the operation that the Terran Heart was running, not to mention the unbelievable resurgence of the Rachni, she had failed to recover a viable source of information. Whether data-disc or prisoner it wouldn't of mattered but now both were beyond her reach. Finally the embarrassing way she was being sent away, like a whipped varren with its tail between its legs.

The casualties had been unacceptable, simply pathetic on her part. She had been on a lot of combat operations in her time and had never seen a Asari commando squad wiped out like that. She felt responsible for their deaths. Well partly responsible, it had been Esra's bullheaded stupidity that had landed them in this pyjack poo. It had been her fault though, giving into the older woman's wishes and the mercs had paid with their lives.

_'Nobody deserves to die like that...' _Tela pondered, a shiver starting from her tailbone and spreading up to shoulders as she thought of how close she came to the same end.

"Hmm looks like one of the primates survived." Levra's cheery voice chirped, using a slang for humans that had originated with the Turians regarding humanities ape ancestry and perceived lack of social graces.

Sure enough though there was a lone human male standing among the dead and Tela watched as he sprinted towards the shuttle in long desperate strides. She quirked one tattoo laden eyebrow and pursed her lips in thought.

"Sorry monkey but these birds have to fly!" her fellow Asari taunted as she manipulated the foot pedals and launched the shuttle up and out of the human's reach sending the human plummeting down as the transports artificial gravity unexpectedly reactivated and dragged him back down to the deck below where the hungry Rachni waited. The shuttles door slammed click sounding like for all the world a coffin's lid closing for the last time.

"Wait." Tela placed a hand on Levra's shoulder and the shuttle stopped its ascent right before the hull breach. She watched impassively as the security guard dispatch three of the Rachni before taking a talon through the leg and stumbled to one knee. Well it was over, she had no need of a dead prisoner as after all there wasn't anything useful a corpse could tell her. Well nothing in words at least.

"Proceed Levra." Tela intoned and began to turn away. Instead she noticed movement and watched as the wounded merc killed the final Rachni soldier and collapsed on the ground.

She had a decision to make.

*()*

Miller stared up at the great gash in the ceiling as the Asari's shuttle passed out of sight. The counter continued to count down and would soon be reaching double digits. He was slowly fading in and out of consciousness as his air scrubbers effectiveness deteriorated even further. He couldn't even feel the wound or anything else due to the cold.

Strangely he felt no regrets, his meaningless existence coming to an end. An insignificant speck in a cold and uncaring universe that laughed at the efforts of those who sought to change it. It was pointless to try and resist, the fire of life that had burned so brightly within as he fought the bugs had sputtered out.

_'I just wish I could of gone home one less time, said sorry to everyone.' _he missed his family, their parting had not been on the best of terms. Though it all seemed so far away. _'I wonder if Dad's still working at Aunt Fran's farm...' _His mind wandered as parts of it shut down, blood loss and severe hypothermia taking its toll.

_'The fields, my mother's cooking, hunting with my brother's in the mountains.' _His pulse slowed and his vision started to fade. _'Strange, I can almost smell the campfire. Feel the heat on my face.' _The feeling of warmth continued to grow every closer and closer and a bright light appeared in his failing vision. _'So warm, so warm, I just want to go.' _The heat continued to grow. _'Warm,, uhm warmth, so hot. Hot! Hot!' _

With a searing heat his eyes shot open and his vision cleared, the shock of the continued heat turning up his adrenalin and giving him a miraculous second wind. Shaking and on the second try he managed to sit up and rest on his fore arms.

The asari shuttle had returned and he watched in slack jawed amazement as it landed scant meters away! Even more amazingly the rear of the craft shifted and a small hatch was opened on the side of the vehicle.

The alien with the blue and white armor appeared and gestured wildly towards him. It was obvious what the meaning meant and he didn't think twice.

_'Maybe the universe doesn't suck balls after all.' _he mentally proclaimed. Legs shaking and trembling he grit his teeth and pushed himself up on his feet. Immediately his leg screamed in agony and he fell flat on his face. He was exhausted but wouldn't give up. So he crawled. Centimeter by agonizing centimeter he pulled himself forward, leaving a dark red smear on the ground behind as his wound opened up. _'I'm not going to die here!' _he had found his fire again.

He would of made it too, definitely totally. Would of made it if the air scrubbers hadn't finally decided to fail as the countdown final met it's end. Gasping for breath Joseph rolled over once again, his face lit by the red flashing 00:00 on his H.U.D.

Strong arms grabbed him and dragged him up and into the open hatch, before slamming it closed behind them. With a whoosh and a hiss the cabin of the shuttle was pressurized and oxygen was pumped in. In a matters of seconds his helmet was ripped off and thrown away. Like a fish on dry land, Miller gulped huge mouthfuls of air as his starving lungs attempted to catch up.

As his vision slowly cleared the first thing he noticed was the barrel of pistol lodge in his face. That and the floor rushing to meet him and he passed out.

*()*

Tela hurriedly pulled the first aid kit from where it was stashed under one of the empty troop seats and ran back to the human. Kneeling down she began to triage the broken man, efficiently stripping him of his armor and applying medi-gel laced bandages and hooking up an IV to replace the lost blood's volume in his body. After she had treated him to the best of her ability she wrapped him in a heated emergency blanket and returned to the cockpit.

"I don't see why we needed the cave-man." Levra questioned as she once again prepped the craft for take off. "That cruiser probably didn't get bored and leave. They seem a little more than enamored with us."

Tela removed her helmet and rubbed her eyes clear of sweat. "I need him for information." she snapped, "Move clear of the transport and engage the FTL drive."

"Okay Vasir, but where do you have in mind?" Levra removed her helmet as well and guided the craft through the opening.

" The relay," the SPECTRE went back to check in on her prisoner/patient, her head already spinning with possibilities and future scenarios. "We must get to the Citadel."


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer**

The author acknowledges lack of ownership of Mass Effect and any associated intellectual property.

Tela Vasir: Hard Point

III

The Citadel Station is a physical manifestation of the Council nation's power. When viewing it for the first time or the hundredth it is impossible not to be impressed by the massive construction and its elaborate design.

The five gigantic arms, each an amazing 44k in length were like a giant fist, clutching the galaxies economic, military and political power in a vice grip. It was a space bound metropolitan, with thirteen million occupants all with their own culture and agendas. Traders and mercenaries alike plied their wares in fierce competition with mega-corporations.

All sat below the mighty Presidium, the royal crown that sat perched at the end of the gargantuan space station. From there the three individual Councilors that represented the Citadel member races made decisions that affected trillions of sentient beings all over known space.

Entire species had been deemed to dangerous and driven to extinction. Wars were launched that had cost trillions of credits and resulted in a veritable endless supply of corpses and ended with nothing more than a small bullet in one of the endless intelligence reports that the STG and the other nations covert ops groups.

It was a brutal system, but in such a dark and uncaring galaxy it was the only way to survive.

*()*

Tela Vasir shifted her weight from one foot to another as she crossed her arms against her chest. She watched disinterestedly as Levra piloted the shuttle into one of the thousands of docking bays that lined the outside of the Citadels huge structure. Her SPECTRE status allowed them to bypass the normal civilian air traffic control procedures and scored them a private docking bay on the presidium itself.

As she fiddled with the controls in preparation for docking Levra hummed a cheerful tune. "We will be down in five." she bubbled and Tela briefly questioned how she could be so chipper, especially after all of her friends and co-workers had just been wiped out.

Levra had explained that there was no need to sweat the "small things" and that working with Esra and the rest of the crew had only been to make ends meet. "Besides they were assholes anyways, mostly! Much better to work for a Spectre. Better pay too!"

Tela hadn't wasted any time considering the future employment of the air-headed pilot, her head was filled with theories about what the hell had happened in the past twelve hours. Her written report had already been written, now she just had to figure out what she was going to say.

This was her first real mission as a SPECTRE and all of her past accomplishments meant nothing if she messed this up. She was more nervous now then when she was in a firefight. Tela knew that was silly but in a fight she always took a more logical approach. Identify the target, pin with fire and destroy the enemy with biotics. If it was a particular hardy adversary she would utilize a biotic rush and close the distance then engage with her omni-blade or more brutal biotic bashing.

_'I pray that the Council is pleased.' _she mentally whispered, the rest of her career and future might rest on the testimony she gave when she was before the governing body of the largest governmental body in known space. That and whatever information she managed to glean out of her prisoner.

The human merc was still unconscious from his wounds. Shortly after he had been brought on board he had lapsed into a catatonic state. She was lucky that he hadn't died, he had severe lacerations on his forearm that would require stitching, acid burns on his back and a sever case of hypothermia. The wound that concerned her most was the nasty puncture wound on his leg. She had sanitized the wound and changed the dressing. Thankfully the artery hadn't been nicked or else her prisoner would have left the land of the living in a short spurt of bright red fluid. While losing the prisoner wouldn't close the case, it would certainly impede the investigation and if things were going the way she suspected she would need every advantage she could get.

The man murmured something intelligible in his sleep and Tela decided to take this time to check his vitals. She left her weapon with her armor and walked over. He was strapped down and pumped full of sedatives, much of for his safety as theirs.

"We're here!" Levra shouted back to her as the interior lights came on and the cabin hissed as it equalized the pressure pressure from outside and inside the hull. "Probably wouldn't of even noticed we had landed if I hadn't told ya! Smooth as Thessian velvet!"

Tela grunted in acknowledgment, it as was true that the pilot did show some degree of skill. Though whether or not it demanded her to constantly remind you of it was another story. Despite her quirks she was a more than competent pilot; not to mention already involved in this whole situation, so to keep the number of people in the know to a minimum and to ease recruitment efforts it would be prudent to keep her on retainer. At least for the time being until other options could be explored.

"I want you to take the prisoner to one of my apartments. It's a secure location and you should be quite comfortable. Stay there and make sure nothing happens to the human." Tela ordered, resting one foot on the ramp as it slowly lowered. Not waiting for it to fully lower she skipped out of the shuttle and into the empty docking terminal. "I'm sending you a money transfer and the address for the apartment. Consider the money a payment for your silence as well as continued services." She typed out the transfer and the text message in her omni-tool before hurrying away.

Halfway to the door she paused and turned, "I'm counting on you Levra. Don't fail me!"

"Not a chance in hell Miss. Vasir! Not when the money's this good!" the pilot salivated as she checked her now significantly bolstered bank account.

Satisfied with the other asari's response, Tela gave one last wave over her shoulder and exited the docking platform.

As soon as she was outside she checked the tracking device she had placed on the humans body and a C-sec cell with tailing the pilot and taking up watch outside the apartment.

Money could buy loyalty but she would be damned if she was so easy to trust. After all people were apt to do what you didn't expect them to do most of the time when you expected to do what you expected. After all that would qualify as being unexpected.

And that would get people killed. Even worse a mission failure.

And that was unacceptable.

*()*

Levra cackled in glee as she worked through the shuttle's power down procedures. She had been working as a pilot for the past century after completing her flight training after washing out of her collegiate studies.

She was a disappointment to her mother in that regard, hadn't talked to her in over fifty years, while her father she wasn't so sure about. He had died when she was barely old enough to walk, the curse of a Salarians short life span. Her mother had however encouraged her to pray to the goddess whenever she felt as if she was missing out. It was part of the Asari races long-range outlook on life and spirituality in general, treasure the moments you have with your loved ones for they might not be there in a century or two.

_'Unless your dad's a Krogan. Then you're in it for the long haul! A millennium of hunting and bashing of heads. Ugh!' _Levra thought, thinking idly about the complexities of being part of a species that instinctively bonded with members outside of their race.

Anyways, she had tried the whole college thing, but despite her fathers supposedly intelligent Salarian genes (she never believed that there was no cross species D.N.A splicing, just look at her jittery nature and limited attention span for proof) she had never quite worked up the motivation to attend to the higher levels of academia.

So she had dropped all pretense of attempting to "better" herself and instead pushed herself to actually pursue something she liked. So after a decade or two or searching she had found her calling.

Being in the air, or more specifically space.

Taking flight school by storm she had graduated with top honors, securing a posh job shuttling dignitaries from Thessia's star-ports to the orbiting space-stations where they would be loaded onto transports or private yachts respectively. She had stayed on with that for about twenty years before saving up enough money to buy her own trade ship. The next year was spent ferrying goods between Illium and various other outer rim worlds. At least until a rouge meteor had resulted in a terrible tragedy and the loss of both her vessel and a particularly illegally lucrative batch of genetically modified bora (a six-footed Thessian mammal popular for its meat, milk and skin.).

Rescue came about a day later, too late to salvage her beautiful ship, but not too late to find the remains of her black-market cargo. Levra had been hauled out of her escape pod, protestations falling on deaf stodgy Turian ears, before finding herself standing trial before one of the lower courts of the Citadel government. The trial had been short and sickly sweet "Sixty Years for Trafficking in Illegally Modified Goods without a Permit." she had then been hauled away to some prison rock out in the middle of the Terminus system to serve her sentence. Sixty years was a blink of an eye for an Asari, but sixty years hard labor mining in an asteroid wasn't anything to scoff out no matter how long you lived.

It was there in the mines that she had met Esra and one of her cronies, sent to the clink for manslaughter of a Hanar missionary. They had splattered the poor creature with their air car while on a drunken rampage, each receiving thirty five year sentences on grounds of the accidental nature of the event.

It had happened that the two of them were on the same work-shift as her and she found herself lured in by Esra's tales of glory and plunder. Though she found the woman extremely hard to like, due to her wandering hands and filthy mouth, the life of a mercenary seemed like a paradise dream. Action excitement and most importantly money would all be hers if she joined up with Eclipse after having her sentence commuted to forty years for good behavior. So she took Esra up on her offer and went to work as a Eclipse pilot.

That had been thirty years ago and she had to admit life had been getting pretty boring. It seemed like that cute SPECTRE had shown up just in the nick of time to spice things up again.

_'Just the little spice up I needed to make this century one worth remembering!' _Levra giggled, her childlike enthusiasm and curiosity making her a relatively simple creature, "Now where did I put that spanner?" she mumbled, finishing her after mission maintenance with the habit of a thousand practiced repetitions. _'I wonder what it's like being a SPECTRE? Rich, powerful,influential, elegant, beautiful...' _Levra's face burned with a light pink, framing the celestial tattoos on her face with her embarrassment. Her body wasn't as nearly desirable as the older woman, being shorter and more lithe and her fingers rough from working with tools all day.

_'Well better get the monkey-man and get him situated. I hope Tela gets back soon, I got fat wad of credits in my pocket just itching to be spent!' Maybe I'll head on down to Tayseri and have some tea and squid noodles!' _Her mouth salivating at just the thought of something other than military rations, the purple woman approached the still sleeping human and regarded him with some distaste.

While not exactly disgusted by humans she had never particularly found their males attractive, instead picking the much more Asari analogue human females. It was eerie how the species were so similar. She had only bonded with one human in her time, a female programmer that she had met on shore leave in an Illium nightclub. It was an interesting experience, much different than her times with Esra or her college flings and one that didn't exactly leave a bad tastes in her mouth.

_'In more ways than one!' _she cackled to herself, realizing just how much of the Eclipse's bad manners had worn off on her.

Moving to the head of the human's grav-stretcher she scratched her head-crest in confusion, dislodging a few bits of loose dandruff. _'Gotta find a better head oil.' _

After a few minutes of searching she managed to figure out the controls and put the stretcher into transport mode. With a slight push they were on their way.

She brought up a map of the wards and located the apartment that Tela had given her. She would have to hail a cab. Looking up a taxi's number she sent a text to the dispatcher and sat down on the side walk with the stretcher powered down next to her. She got a few looks from passerby's, wondering what a woman was doing laying on the sidewalk next to a comatose man.

After what seemed like forever the cab arrived and with much complaints from the Turian driver about "Safety Issues", she loaded the comatose human up in the back seat, plopped his IV bag on the seat next him, collapsed the stretcher and loaded it in the trunk.

With a whoosh they were on their way!

*()*

The poor pistol suffered the wrath of Tela's steely grip as she clenched it, causing her knuckles to turn a pale blue. She gripped so hard the polymer handle began to creak and small biotic flashes danced across her skin like flames over coals. She was livid and that usually led to something being shot full of holes or torn apart by her biotics.

The Asari secretary visibly flinched under the Spectre's death glare but did not back down. Instead she clutched her data slate closer to her chest and repeated the same thing she had been saying for the past fifteen minutes. It had gotten to be almost a mantra for her.

"I'm sorry Lady Vasir, but the office has already received your written report on your mission and the Council will be forwarded the pertinent information after its been reviewed. They are unable to accept your request for a face to face meeting at this time." She attempted a cheery tone but the bureaucrat's smile was obviously forced.

"It is of the utmost importance that I personally debrief the council! It is a matter of grave severity!" Tela slammed her gauntlet clad fist into the wall next to the bumbling secretary's head. "If you will not allow me to see them, I will have to take matters into my own hands!" she mustered as much verbal ice as she could and smirked inwardly as the other woman blanched and gulped comically before steeling herself.

"Spectre Vasir, the Council is currently in the middle of a very important session. If you continue to violate the peace, I will have no other course than to call the guards." As if on cue two heavily armored Turians appeared from seemingly out of thin air, their armor painted in the red and blue of Presidium guards, the elite force that guarded the Council and Citadel species ambassadors.

They casually held their M-15 Vindicator assault rifles in relaxed talons but from their shifting eye's and tensed legs muscles her experienced eyes could tell that these men were experts and ready to leap into action.

She probably could of taken them, maybe, the mission certainly dictated that she take any action to achieve her goal. However she was stall from taking lethal action by a cool detached voice from behind her.

"Unwise this course of action is. Presidium guards operate in groups of four or more. The others most likely have you targeted." Tela turned around to address this newcomer, but paused when she recognized who it was who had more than likely saved her life.

Veelan Perrus was (in)famous across the Terminus system's and the wildly unsettled Skyllian Verge as the Spectre who ended the reign of the Batarian pirate king Vor' Resh the Mangler, defeated the Krogan Battlemaster Brull on Xanatos and cleared out the Thresher Maw infestation on Rayingri.

The Salarian SPECTRE was also known for his unwavering sense of justice and tactical sense. Having been a SPECTRE for ten years, the man was reaching the end of his career, but in the time he had been active he had more than made an impact on the galaxy.

_'A candle that burns twice as bring burns twice as fast.' _Tela mused and relaxed the grip on her weapon. "Maybe you can assist me Mr. Perrus, I am in dire need of an audience with the Council. My recent mission has revealed something, extraordinary." Talking to her senior she hoped that maybe he would be able to use his connections to help her out.

"Best to follow protocol, not involve the Council directly. Many advantages found in having distance from superiors." he spoke in the quick clip that members of his species were known for. "Come, walk. Much to discuss." With that he turned around walked away.

Tela was torn for a second, but in the end she gave the secretary and soldiers one last glare before marching off. Catching up to the lanky alien she pulled up next to him and matched his pace.

"Your first mission?" his reptile like eyes swiveled and regarded her with equal parts curiosity and amusement. Obviously he already knew, there was only a few dozen SPECTREs active in the galaxy at a time and it was hard to miss the appointment of a new one.

"Yes."

"Hmm, I remember mine. Violent hostage situation on Palaven. Had to rescue a General Vakarian from a group of Turian militants. Messy ending, too many casualties both enemy and ally to satisfy." By this time they had reached an elevator and Veelan held up his hand for her to enter.

They rode in silence for a time, the elevator ride seeming to take forever as they traveled down from the very top of the Presidium tower. When they finally managed to escape the awkward silence they found themselves in the Presidium commons. This was truly the heart of the space station, while not as busy as some of the ward's market places the sheer variety of people mulling around the shops and restaurants was mind boggling to behold. Soon enough they found themselves at a little cafe, a rotund Volus in an apron waddling out to drop of the menu's and welcome them. Tela picked up the menu, the awkward silence still pervading between them, scanning a chip on the outside of the menu to open up the application in her omni-tool.

The other Spectre sat and ordered something on his omni-tool. "When I returned to the Citadel for my debriefing I sought to rectify my perceived failures." he said gesturing for Tela to order something as well. "I had an audience with the Council. Did not do any good. Merely brought what should have been hidden into the public view."

Tela mulled over his words before ordering a cup of lemon tea. They waited until their orders arrived, an awkward silence between the two of them. Well it was awkward for Tela, the other man seemed to be enjoying himself, browsing the extra-net on his omni-tool. He seemed to be alternating between tabloids and fashion magazines, something the Asari found somewhat strange to say the least.

When their orders arrived, Tela drinking her lemon tea and Veelan casually dissecting a bowl of mixed fruit.

They both finished at the same time and without wasting another moment the Salarian stood, his red and green head fringe moving in what would be the equivalent to the Asari forehead raise.

"Do what you like. Of course this is what SPECTREs are for. Autonomous operations." Paying his bill he got up and excused himself . "Also important to remember, mostly we operate alone, though sometimes wise to seek outside assistance."

Tela watched him recede then disappear into the crowded marketplace. She narrowed her eyes in suspicion convinced that he knew more than he was letting on. Which meant the Salarian had ulterior motives outside of offering a friendly piece of advice.

She gulped down the last bit of tea and swished the rinds through her teeth. Taking her credit chit out she scanned the bill that was offered to her and mentally calculated the tip. Ten percent and not a credit more.

Walking to the taxi-stand she summoned a ride, since it was lunch break on the citadel there was a massive queue of taxis and the wait wasn't long at all. Once it was her turn she popped the door to the air-car and lowered herself inside.

"Vongal ward, Venusian Garden apartments. Extra credits if you expedite the trip." she was starting to worry about leaving Levra alone in charge of the prisoner for so long. The other woman seemed like kind of an buffoon. Goddess know what kind of mischief she could get up to left to her own devices. The drink with Perrus had delayed her further and she was anxious to get back.

"Please enter address on the alpha-numerical keypad below." An emotionless V.I. answered her statement and Tela flushed in self inflicted embarrassment. The taxi was one of the new driver-less versions that had been showing up all over the galaxy recently.

Properly chastised she entered her information again into the computer and waited for a second for the system to process.

"Address found, please sit back and enjoy your ride in this Airake Automated Taxi." the V.I. intoned as the air-car lifted with slight wine, its miniaturized mass-effect core allowing for the undersized thrusters to safely propel it up and away.

Resting her head against the plush head-rest, Tela allowed herself to fully relax for the first time since she had received her current assignment.

_'Interrogate the detainee, learn what I can. Find out who is behind Terran Heart and this new Rachni threat. Eliminate the threat, censure the media, implicate those responsible.' _she reasoned, closing her eyes as she thought through the end state she would achieve. By picturing it, it became possible for her to reverse plan how to make that end a reality.

A few minutes later and she was hovering in front of one of the many apartments she owned. One of he best things about such a life time was a that much more time to acquire wealth and power. Assets could be gathered for centuries in preparation for the hard times to come, contingency plans could be created for all feasible outcomes. Tela didn't know if other Asari thought this way or if it was just her, but it certainly helped in the strategic planning that had helped her outsmart and out maneuver her enemies on a hundred different battlefields over the last two centuries.

With a sudden lurch the air-car descended coming to a stop at the apartments curb. With a hiss the cabin depressurized and the door opened. A well known fact on the Citadel, local atmosphere was maintained by localized mass effect fields up to seven meters in height on all ward arms. Thus anything traveling outside of the gravity field had to be pressurized and oxygenated. That included the wards various skyscrapers and the air-car she had just rode in.

"Your fair comes to twenty five credits, your identity has been confirmed and your account charged. Have a Airake great day." the craft announced as she slid out of the passenger compartment and onto the side walk.

Swiftly she made her way into the buildings entrance foyer ignoring the dilapidated interior and heading straight for the elevator. Reaching the thirty-third floor she exited the elevator, moving to the side of the hallway for a family of batarians to pass.

After a short while she reached apartment 3321 and entered her code on the keypad. With the correct string of numerical characters a panel slid open on the side of the door and pulsed with blue light, scanning her biometric data before releasing the locks on the reinforced door as it slid to the side.

It was one of the many properties she owned, this is was one of two she possessed on the Citadel the other in the Presidium. However the current situation demanded that a level of security and secrecy be held so this lower income apartment in the ghetto part of the Vongal neighborhood.

She entered her apartment and checked the bedroom on the right for Levra. Nothing, so she moved on the second. Here she didn't find the pilot either however she picked up the trail. A sweat-stained flight-suit lay draped over the lamp in the corner, a pair of boots lay haphazardly thrown on the bed and there was a pistol laying tangled in of all things a matching set of bra and panties.

_'What does she think this is a motel?' _she seethed, compulsively straightening and fixing the myriad of problems she saw. Dirty clothes in the hamper, shoes under the bed and pistols, well pistols could go on the nightstand for now at least. _'Ugh, when I find the cretin!'_

She didn't have to wait long, a blast of cheerfully annoying music and electronic beeps erupted from nearby. Following the noise to its source she discovered the source of her current irritation, sitting in the kitchen with her legs propped up, playing a virtual game on her omnitool the purpose of which seemed to be to lead a comically caricature of a turian to the end of a maze.

"Levra! What in Akane's name do you think you are doing!' Tela shouted, putting her hands on her hips as if addressing a particularly unruly child. "This is not a stable! Did you never bother to learn a sense of decorum! You are supposed to be guarding the detainee, not wasting your time on silly entertainment!"

Levra switched of her game and gestured wildly, "I have been looking after the ape, besides he's tied up, there's no way he could get by me!"

Tela covered her face with one palm and grunted in frustration. _'Of course it was my luck to be paired with the only fool in the galaxy dumb enough to anger a SPECTRE! Come here, find her messing up my room and putting her feet up on the table...no that's not the table that's..."_

"Idiot!" Tela kicked and pushed the pilots feet off where they had been resting on the prisoner's chest. The human which was still unconscious at this point, began breathing easier without the extra weight holding his chest down. Snarling she turned back to the other woman who was massaging her leg where she had been kicked. "Do you have any idea how much trouble you would of caused me if the human had died?"

"Hey, I'm a pilot, not a doctor. You told me to keep him secure and I was doing just that." Levra yawned, stood and stretched her hands up over her head. "Well I suppose you've got the helm now Captain, I'm gonna head out. I gotta date with some hot noodles!" she ran out and Tela attempted to grab her but the surprisingly nimble younger woman managed to slip past.

"Levra, come back here! I'm not done...are those my clothes!"

"Don't worry I'll pick you up something too!" she yelled from around the corner baggy dress dragging on the floor behind her as the little annoyance departed from sight.

Sighing in exasperation Tela dropped into the recently vacated chair and let her shoulders slump. She had to take a breath to calm herself. _'That little wretch! Trash my house, wear my clothes! If it wasn't beneficial to keep her around I'd of ventilated the little mendicant.' _She let her breath out and centered her thoughts, pushing the negative thoughts away. When sufficiently calm she turned backed to the task at hand.

Leaning over she busied herself with re-checking the human's vitals. Levra's abuse of the poor sap didn't seem to have had much an effect on the big man and he was breathing fine on his own. His wounds had sealed with the application of medi-gel and the crude stitches that Levra had sutured were holding. She would have to up his anti-biotic intake to prevent infection, otherwise the oozing wound would fester and cause him to lose the leg. This would probably end in an uncooperative prisoner. Or a dead one.

She checked the IV lines that were supplying him with fluids and an antibiotic cocktail. They were still inserted into the side of his neck. She knew that like Asari, human's had a large artery there, so after locating his pulse that is where she had stuck him. The transparent bandage was still in place holding the catheter down so there was no worries of it pulling free.

Satisfied that he could survive alone for the next few minutes, she moved on to check the human's bindings in case Levra's assessment had been a flawed as much as her guest manners. However it seemed that she had been correct and all the straps were secure. Unless the alien had the strength of a Krogan in heat he wouldn't be getting loose any time soon.

Tela placed a hand on the human's head and pried open an eye. It was fully dilated, minutely back and forth. Truth be told she didn't know enough about human anatomy to tell exactly what that meant but it was good to see movement of some kind.

Taking her leave, secure in the knowledge that the human would be fine, Tela made her way to her bedroom. Moving over to the armor stand she took her pistol out of the holster and set it on the nightstand. Then she separated the upper and lower portions of her Specter armor, draping the chest plate over the cross bar and looping the bottom portion over hooks built into the assembly's base. A plug coming from the wall socket was slipped into place in the power pack on the back of the chest-plate portion.

The SPECTRE's nose wrinkled in disgust as she caught a whiff of her offensive odor, an entire two day's in the same armor and under-suit had caused quite a bit of sweat to build up. She felt dirty and strangely vulnerable without hard ceramic plates between her and the outside world. For a brief second she made to reach for her pistol, positive that a horde of Rachni soldiers would come bursting through the door at any second.

She stopped short however and shook it off. It was a normal feeling, she had experienced similar feelings many times before after life or death situations. The difference this time was that she was left with a feeling of trepidation, coming out with many more questions than she ever had before.

These were her thoughts as she crept to the bathroom and closed the door behind her. Finally alone she could relax and her hand gripped the under-suit's zipper. She pulled it down slowly, rolling her taut shoulders to let it slip past he bosom then down to her hips, revealing her sculpted torso and firm abdominal muscles. The skin tight outfit caught on her hips and she reached both hands down and fed them between the suit and her thighs, bending over to let it fall down her legs and pool in a piles at her feet.

Tela turned the shower on and set the temperature to as high as it would go. Slowly steam filled the small enclosed space and she breathed in the humid warm vapors with eager anticipation. Not able to wait a second longer she leaped into the steaming deluge.

The warmth of the steaming water sent a shiver down her spine as her sore muscles were soothed and caressed, washing away the dirt and grime. Grabbing a bottle of liquid soap she squirted it onto a wash cloth and worked it into a lather over every square inch of her body. As she worked the soap into her head-crest she couldn't help but feel a tingle build in the pit of her stomach, an itch that yearned to be itched.

The head-ridges of an Asari were composed of fixed cartilage and skin and were regarded as very sensual areas due to the incredible amount of nerves situated among the rows. As such they were considered private area and usually only allowed to be touched by lovers or bond-mates. Tela knew this from first hand experience, having sent more than a few maidens to the bed with a few well placed strokes and teases.

She crushed that line of thought with unyielding ruthlessness. This was not the time for self-indulgent behavior. There were more important things to be done. _'Though it has been a long time, fifty, no sixty years?'_ Again she shook that useless line of thinking away. A SPECTRE would always place the mission first. Still for a species as sensually in tune with their themselves as an Asari it was quite a bitch.

Reluctantly she switched the water off and stepped dripping out onto the floor. After drying herself off with a fine silk towel she took a toothbrush off the rack and brushed her teeth. After that she reached for the bottle of scalp oil and spurted a gob into her hand. Rubbing it onto both of her hands she massaged it into her head-ridges, again ignoring the tingle at the base of her spine. The smell was sweet yet sharp, the human lettering identifying the scent as "Mint". It was an import from Bekenstien and was not cheap, though she had been buying the brand for a few years and had yet to be displeased.

Finishing up she wiped her hands on a hand towel and looked at herself in the mirror. Tired dark blue eyes stared back her from beneath a tattoo laden forehead, the result of a night of too much drink and too little common sense after an evening of boisterous revelry. The teal colored tattoos covered much of her body, even the more private ones, worked their way down under her eyes and jaw to her neck. It was a good thing she had been so intoxicated otherwise the leering Asari tattooist would of ended up nursing a violet eye. Wrapping herself in a towel she picked up her dirty under-suit and returned to the bedroom, throwing the soiled clothes away and picking out an outfit.

In the end she decided on a pair of fitted boots, black pants and a white long sleeve shirt. As a finishing touch she attached her holster to the belt on the small of her back and snugly slid her pistol inside.

Taking a small box of tools out of her dresser she returned to the kitchen and sat back down. Disassembling her pistol she began to clean, finishing after a short while before reassembling her weapon. With nothing left to do Tela leaned back, crossed her legs and against the pressure of suddenly leaden eyes, promptly fell asleep.

*()*

Miller had heard that sometimes dreams were portents or prophetic in nature. Of course he had heard it from his senile old great grandmother who had made a living reading tarot cards and palms for the last forty years of her life after her husband passed. So it wasn't exactly reliable information but it was all he had to go on at the moment. Of course he couldn't realize that at the moment being locked in that semi-lucid dream state that most people visited every night.

If this dream was a prediction of the future then he had no idea of what it meant. He stood at the edge of a gigantic tent of oversized proportions. It was red and yellow on the outside, something he had seen when he was just a little boy, way back in the hazy memories of youth.

There was a line of people, all chattering excitedly as they awaited their turn to enter the big top. Miller looked to left, aware but unaware that he had dropped down to his eight year old height and that his hand was being clasped by an old withered hag. He didn't recognize the woman but he grimaced as she clenched his hand in old gnarled fingers. Suddenly he was being drug forward, the crowd parting as the old lady moved through them like Moses parting the red sea.

Miller attempted to dig in his feet, instinctively knowing that whatever was inside that tent was not a good thing. He didn't want to go, this was a feeling from before he figured. The closer they got to the tent the worse the feeling got. The hawkers on the side lines began to grow louder and louder, soon sounding like a deafening roar. His hand really began to hurt as the old crone moved faster and faster, the world to the sides flashing by in an impossible speed as they moved towards the glowing entrance flap. Neon signs masqueraded as welcoming gestures, their meaning and words twisted beyond comprehension as they shifted to some odd alien lettering. They were feet away now from the entrance when he watched in horror as the old crones cowl fell away and revealed the wretched tentacles of a squid-headed horror.

"Welcome to the circus kiddo!" she cackled in a voice that sounded like his eight grade teacher Mr. Klinkewitz as the tent folded into a paper crane and flew away into a vast lake of soda beer.

_'Okay so maybe dreams are just crap.' _His unconscious mind mused as the world exploded into technicolor lights and the smell of mint.

*()*

Millers eye's cracked as he opened them, the layer of crud that had built up around his eyelids breaking loose. The moment he managed to pry one open a little e he was assaulted by a piercingly white light that seemed to sear his retina's in a flashing blast of pain. After the white light there came the first vestiges of color, mixed and jumbled until they resolved themselves into ceiling tiles and a rickety light fixture that flickered on and off.

The smell had been with him since he had awoken, like the mint clusters his mother used to use in her cooking. It was faint yet prevalent. He attempted to rise but found the movement arrested as a searing lance of pain shot up from his thigh. Fearfully he looked down and witnessed what he assumed to be a bandage covered wound on his thigh. Further inspection revealed another on his forearm and from the stinging sensation there was some on his back as well.

Turning his neck he was startled to find a sleeping alien not four feet way. The succubus lay with her arms across her chest, head lolled to the side back over the chairs headrest. A tiny rivulet of drool threatened to drip from the creatures maw. It would of almost been comical if not for the implications behind such an occurrence. He was a prisoner and what malign machinations were being cooked up by his captors he dared not to say.

Further efforts to rouse himself proved fruitless as he found himself restrained by tough bonds of synthetic material. He struggled as quietly as he could, ignoring the immense pain in his leg with every jar and minute movement.

After a few minutes of pointless struggling he collapsed back into his bed, his body covered with stress after just a few minutes of movement. He had been stripped of all of his clothing left with nothing but an silver warming blanket to cover his shame. That had been thrown off center when he had been attempting escape and he was now exposed the cold air causing goose bumps all over his skin.

He had to escape; there was now way of knowing what these alien degenerates had planned for him. Growing up he had heard tales of abductions, human slaving rings, sex trafficking, mutilations and organ harvesting, all result of the luring of some nubile human to their doom by a Alien succubus. Eden prime was very traditional and with the first contact war only thirteen years prior one could almost expect that level of xenophobia out of humanity. That notion was only exasperated when one examined the average colonist, isolated from earth by hundreds of thousands of light-years, all alone in the dark with nothing to rely on but each other and whatever gods they prayed to. Human gods which would shed no tear over hate directed at an alien aggressor.

His own father, Phillip Miller had fought on Shanxi, arriving as part of the relief force under Admiral Kastanie Drescher when she led the Systems Alliance Second Fleet against the Turian occupied planet. Though he didn't do much fighting as the Turians had pulled out mainly uncontested due to conducting a strategic withdrawal, he had witnessed the aftermath of the invasion. The destroyed homes, mass graves and mistreated POW's.

He had brought his experiences back home with him and later to Eden Prime and his family. His mother hadn't been any kinder in her assertions, spinning tales of evil succubi, vicious frogmen and cannibalistic Krogans to him and his siblings before bed. Joseph had been raised on those stories and so had his peers, creating a general animosity and wariness of anything outside of the origins of humanity. Racism it could be called, though human kind had mainly gotten over hatred of its own now it had something completely foreign to demonize. At least that's what he thought was what people felt. It was hard to look outside one's first-hand experiences to find the truth.

His eyes flicked back to the peacefully resting Asari, noticing the tell tale bulge of a heavy pistol sticking out from behind her back. If only he could reach it, he would have a fighting chance. No doubt the alien would be furious at the loss of it's comrades back aboard the freighter. He tested his bonds again, but there was no budge. Though he did notice that while the bonds were tight they were designed for a being of shorter stature and different proportions, the straps resting on his forearms instead of his wrists and his knees instead of his ankles.

_'They couldn't be that stupid, could they?'_ Joseph mentally scoffed, a small ray of hope beginning to rise inside. Sliding his body up like a snake inch by inch he slithered up until the his head poked up above the bed and the restraints had reached his ankles and wrists.

However that proved to be a pointless gesture as the restraints automatically tightened as the gap decreased, on a retractable locking spring or some such similar principle. So once again he was left helpless, his situation even more hopeless than before.

If only he could pull out all at once, but with his wrist now secured and being thinner than his

hand this was proving to be impossible. Unless he could conjure some sort of trick like a magician or contortionist.

_'Wait, contortionist! Maybe that could work!' _he recalled seeing something similar once on the holo-net when he was just a boy! Now if he could muster up the courage to go through with this.

He turned his arm as far as it would go, there being just enough room for him maneuver, setting his thumb up against the surface of the gurney. With a quick intake and a prayer to whatever higher powers were listening he torqued his arm as hard as he could, whimpering like a child as his thumb popped out of place. He gagged himself with his other hand to stop from crying out in pain as he yanked his slimmed down hand through the restraint cuff. Bypassing a bit of resistance as the cuff tightened again, causing his heart to nearly jump out of his throat, with a quick tug he cleared the bypass and was home free.

His heart still thumping he looked quickly to his sleeping captor, afraid that the noise had awoken it. However his fears were unfounded, the woman-like imposter simply cooed coquettishly and adjusted itself to get more comfortable, still deep in sleep. He didn't know why but the sight of the Asari looking so close to a human female was unsettling, like some failing attempt by a fool of a mad scientist to mesh human and animal together. An affront to nature.

Popping his thumb back into place he winced in pain and once again grit his teeth to silence himself. Rotating the appendage a few times to make sure it was in proper working order he worked to silently release the other restraint. After a few seconds he succeeding and the cuff opened with a soft clang. He stifled at the noise but still the alien peacefully slept. With much effort he pushed himself up and began to repeat the process on his feet bindings. Finally free of them he rotated himself to sit on the edge of plan, eye's still glued to the pistol behind the alien's back.

He had a second of doubt, he was introspective enough to admit it. Could he kill another person, no, alien while they slept? True it would be in self preservation but still...

_'Screw that! After what the pirate scum did to Ana and Tien. No mercy!' _His mind set he reached slowly lowered himself to the ground carefully, avoiding putting pressure on his injured leg. Though slightly off balance he leaned forward, reaching out ever so slowly towards the holstered pistol on the Asari's back.

_'Carefully, carefully now!' _he intoned his finger tips a mere distance away from the gun's grip. _'Just a little more!' _Eyes flicking back and forth between the gun and the slumbering alien's face. _'Just one more centimeter!" _

He leaned forward steeling himself for the violence to come. However he was not expecting the violent tug as something that had been lodged in his neck pulled loose with a spurt of blood. Taken by surprise he fell forward straight onto the sleeping alien!

For a split second time froze and he found himself suspended in mid-air, separated from the alien's peaceful face in nothing but empty air.

_'Goddammit.' _

He slammed into the pirate face first.

*()*

Tela was laying suntanning on the beaches of Thessia, enjoying a fruity cocktail of a surprisingly alcoholic nature, surrounded by muscular loin cloth clad Turian men fanning her with the feathers of some large avian creature.

"Another drink Mistress?" A young Drell in a suit of the finest make proffered up a tray full of tasty drinks and delicious victuals. "A Kahje Dogfish fillet perhaps, or another Illium waterberry cluster?"

"Ah, no thank you Delanavo." She smugly waved him off, enjoying the peace and comforts of this luxurious retreat. At least until a flying coconut found her cranium and knocked her off her chair and into the sand!

"Bellana! What the hell has possessed you?" she cried at her long dead half sister as the little miscreant hefted up another of the hard nuts up in two hands.

"Hey sis! Hows the weather down there!" she giggled and tossed the coconut to another figure that appeared out of thin air. Levra caught the fruit and cocked back her arm.

"Is it all right if I borrow your dress?" she shouted as she launched the projectile like a mass accelerated round.

_Twhack!_

Tela's eye's snapped open to find the recently restrained, fully nude human bashing his thick skull into her forehead. Still groggy she reeled back from the blow, falling back over the chair as they landed in a messy pile on the kitchen floor.

Still groggy from the blow to the head and just waking up she was unprepared for the right straight the human threw at her. I connected with a meaty slap on the edge of her jaw throwing her head to the side as the human mounted her.

Her head ringing she managed to bring up her fists and block the next two blows, each time the impact smacking her fists back into her face. Even wounded the merc was stronger than her just the weight of him crushing the air out of her chest. If she was going to win she would have to fight with everything she had, well except biotics. She needed him alive after all. It was time to get dirty.

She wiggled out from under him, placing her elbow's against his thighs to gain room and weaken his strikes. She drew her knees up and waited for him to throw the next strike. Deflecting it with one of her hands she took the chance to reach up and grasp the human's wounded thigh. With all her might she pressed her thumb into the gauze wrapping the wound.

The human mercenary reared back with an agonized roar and he batted her hand away. However she had accomplished what she had set out to to and arched her back and rolled, sending her unbalanced attacker crashing to the side.

She scrabbled to recover her footing as she kicked herself and away and rose shakily to her feet. Vision doubling she scrabbled for his pistol and started to draw. Halfway out of the holster however it was tossed away as the man lunged for her. Reactions slowed by the blows to her head they crashed through the kitchen table and she found herself pinned by the heavier alien. However this time she managed to wrap her legs around him in the guard. She compressed her legs to her chest and heaved mightily pushing him away and into the wall. The brittle material buckled and collapsed under the heavy merc's weight sending him plunging right into the neighboring apartment in a shower of dust and broken plasterboard.

A startled Turian, his underwear pulled down around his ankles ran screaming from the room, the loud erotic film he had been watching still blaring on his living room's holo-screen. Ignoring the raunchy scene Tela burst through the whole in the wall and delivered a snap kick to the recovering human's dome piece. The man took the blow head on and fell limply to the ground.

Thinking the fight was done, she relaxed her stance and felt her forehead where she had been headbutted. Her came away wet and she hissed as she wiped the blue blood off on the sleeve of her shirt. Cursing silently at her laxity she turned to find her discarded pistol. She hadn't and couldn't use biotics, because regrettably she needed the big lug alive.

"Comme on bistch, fite me!" The translator had a hard time translating the slurred speech but Tela got the general impression. She turned back around to find the human on wobbly feet, fists raised in defiance. Surprising. Her head still aches but she managed a haughty smirk.

"I'm impressed you're still able to stand after that." she said, "You're species is much less robust than Turians and that kick would of flattened most of them."

The human clenched his fists tighter in anger, "You don't know anything about us, witch!" he snarled his speech clearing up as time went by. "But you'll learn! All of you!"

He was raving, probably feeling weak from his prior injuries or his little tumble through the wall. _'Time for a change in tactics.' _

"Listen! I am a Council SPECTRE, my name is Tela Vasir! All I want to do is ask you a few questions!" She held her hands up, palms out, the universal sign for cool your thrusters. "Just calm down and we can solve this!"

"Just like you solved my friends? Fuck you, you, you alien pirate bitch!" the man screamed and launched himself forward, his fist cocked back for a mighty hay-maker. Tela got back in her fighting pose and nimbly leaped to the side. His fist didn't even come close and he teetered off-balance. Tela whipped her fist around in a backhand aimed for his head. However at the last minute he managed to block with his shoulder and the blow glanced harmlessly off.

He squared off again, this time not rushing instead but instead staying back behind his raised guard. It was at this time that Tela first noticed how tall the man was, towering over her 1.7m frame and with shoulders almost half her's again. She wiped away blood from her forehead again as it threatened to cloud her vision.

"Okay, child!" She inched her lead foot forward, "Escape if you think you are able!"

The man launched himself forward with a incoherent battle-cry and threw a left right combo which Tela wove between with ease. What she didn't expect was the knee to her gut that knocked the wind out of her. Reflexively she bent over and clutched her stomach, heaving for breath. Large strong fingers locked around her crest and she shrieked in pain, the sensitive area being violated in such a vile way. Desperately she scratched at his hands trying to force him to let go, throwing wild blows into his abdomen and chest. He might as well of been a mountain though and the more she struggled the tighter he squeezed. Her biotics began to flare, blue sparks beginning to form around her hands. However the human seemed to catch on and physically lifted her off the ground and slammed her into the wall, making it obvious that he wouldn't tolerate any biotic interference. So she had to resist in others ways and by pure chance she kicked her foot out between the human's legs.

Like an disruptor round had struck immediately his grip went slack and he bent over and cupped his groin as if in severe pain. _'Strange.'_ she wondered but didn't dwell on her good fortune as she had to maintain momentum. Moving like a viper she landed two jabs to his nose, bringing his face up only to be put down again when she uppercutted his solar plexus with devastating effect. Shocked by the impact, his heart beat sporadically for a second and he froze. Which was more than enough for the deadly femme fatale.

Stepping behind him she swept her foot back and knocked his feet out from under him while pushing with her hand on his chest with all her might. He hit the ground hard with a cloud of dust and she immediately pinned him to the ground with a boot clad foot. Still he had the audacity to squirm under her and only stop when a shimmering monomolecular sharpened yellow blade sprang to life right next to his throat.

"If you want to live, I would suggest you cooperate." she instructed coldly, moving the blade a fraction of a centimeter and causing a tiny rivulet of red liquid to trickle out of his throat.

The human snarled and spat, but otherwise made no move. Wiping blood from her face again she cursed her poor luck as she stood panting victoriously over her once again captive and bemoaned her fate. The fight could have been over in seconds if she had used a biotic push or pull but she needed to keep him alive. Though honestly she didn't know if she could of pulled it off, techniques like that took a few seconds to prepare and not for the first time in her life was she glad that she had devoted countless hours to mastering hand to hand combat. But still her victory came with a heavy cost.

_'Damn you imbecile, I just took a shower!'_

*()*

Levra punched in the code she had been given by the SPECTRE, a so called "guest" login that would delete itself after one day rotation. Entering the apartment she called out "SPECTRE Vasir! I've got food!"

"Levra! Go to the bedroom and get the rope from under the bed!" Tela's voice called out, the urgent nature of it making the pilot put a hustle behind her step. Setting the takeout to the side she pulled out a footlocker from under the bed and rummaged through it. In no time at all she found the braided length of rope and rushed out of the bedroom.

"We're in the kitchen!" Tela's voice called out again. "Come in slowly!" Wondering what the hell was going on, Levra beat feet to the kitchen and paused for a second to take in the scene.

The bare naked prisoner was on his knees in the corner of the room, hands and feet crossed behind his back as he leaned forward. His face pressed into the wall she was surprised to see what appeared to be a pair of turian tailored pants acting as a makeshift hood. Tela herself sat next to a giant hole in the wall that appeared to go straight into the next apartment. She sat back in a chair, holding a wad of gauze to her forehead and her pistol held in her hand resting on her leg.

"Hold on." her new boss commanded, flicking a switch on her omnitool she began to speak, the words being translated into what Levra's omnitool identified as English. After a brief pause the human grunted something intelligible and Tela pressed another button on her omnitool.

"Bind his hands and his feet, I've instructed him to remain still or I'll put a bullet in his head." she growled.

"What happened here! I went to get noodles and...!" she started but Tela cut her off with a snarl.

"Levra be quiet and do as I say!" She didn't have to be told twice, the SPECTRE's voice was deadly serious. With shaking hands she roped the human's limbs together, making sure to knot them twice. If the damage to the room was his doing she didn't want to tangle with him at all. She kept expected the savage to try to resist, but other than flexing his muscles a few time, he was rather cooperative.

Finished with her task she stepped back and sat up on the counter top. The SPECTRE looked pretty beaten up, bruises and cuts lacing her body, so she was glad to get away from the cause of it.

"Call a taxi. We've overstayed our welcome here. Too much attention." Tela mumbled and pointed to the human. "I disabled his omnitool's translation module so there's no need to watch what you say." she added almost as if an afterthought.

Levra nodded and went to the other room to place the call. A few minutes she returned holding the two boxes of takeout. Feeling kind of foolish she never the less held up one of the boxes to the other woman.

"Noodles?"

"I despise you."


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer**

The author acknowledges lack of ownership of Mass Effect and any associated intellectual property.

Tela Vasir: Hard Point

IV

Miller wrinkled his face in disgust as the alien musk that permeated the Turian's pants invaded his nostrils. They had been moving for some time now, the jostling and rocking of the grav-stretcher signaling their movement. At one point he had been loaded into an air-car and flown for ten or so minutes. They had gotten out and he had been manhandled away, plopping him down on a hard floor.

In truth he had no idea what was going on, after the woman who had beaten his ass had disabled his omnitool's translation package. Alien voices flowed around him in an intangible stream that was just out of his ability to comprehend.

He still couldn't believe that he had been that soundly beaten. Back in the day he had been a champion boxer, living out in a farming community was a rough life sometimes and disputes were often solved by fisticuffs. He was the second largest of his brothers, his older brother Peter had been a gigantic two point one meters tall . Still though he towered over most men and his broad shoulders and muscular heavy set build meant though he never would seek out a fight he was always' prepared for one.

The alien didn't even come to his chin yet the alien was able to effectively bring him to his knees despite their vast differences in weight and reach. It was actually a little embarrassing and if he wasn't so scared about what was going to happen to him he would of probably been mortified.

It's true he had momentarily forgotten his fears in the fight, but now as he was constrained and imprisoned again. Now however it seemed like his situation had degraded even more so, unable to see or hear properly and locked down even more so than before. He attempted to wriggle his limbs only to find his bindings incredibly tight with no give whatsoever.

In the event of a hostage or forced captive situation, Privaron Security Group recommended sticking to impersonal topics of conversation, like sports or entertainment. Avoid at all times topics such as religion, politics or the genophage. If pressed for information, all that you were authorized to give was your first name, rank and employee ID number, all sensitive information leaked was to be considered a breach of the standard non-disclosure contract and would be dealt with severe punitive action. Above all they urged the captive to remain calm, as PSG would allocate sufficient resources to recover detained assets. However active resistance was always encouraged and employees were reminded that they would not be paid for the duration of their captivity due to lost working hours.

"Yeah fuck you too." he muttered. Pretty much that translated out to mean that he was on his own. However he didn't escape from those monsters just to die here, if anything that was something he was certain of. He would not go quietly into the night, they'd have to drag him kicking and screaming all the way to hell.

"I've got to much shit to do for these assholes to end it now." he was rambling but he didn't particularly care if anyone noticed, in fact he hoped his incessant droning would give the bastards a headache. "Fuck PSG, fuck bugs and fuck Asari! They all deserve each other and can burn in hell for all I care!" He spat into the heavy fabric of the pants and shook his head wildly back and forth. "I hate them! Let me go you calamari headed bitch! I'll deep fry you! Then I'll eat you!" Thrashing wildly back and forth. "I'll kill you! You hear me? I'LL KILL YOU!"

*()*

"Your...friend, is he alright?" The shifty eyed Salarian behind the hotels front counter questioned, glancing nervously from the wildly kicking and screaming human to the Asari hooker. "Problems, we have more than enough. Don't need more."

Tela put on her most dashing smile. "Don't worry about him love, this is all part of our business arrangement. After all the customer is always right!" she purred, throwing in a gaudy wink for good measure. "We just need a room for a few days." she paused as if contemplating something, "Preferably one with good sound proofing"

"I see. There is a room available, forty five credits per night. Need full fee up front plus deposit, is he paying?" The Salarian glanced at the partially naked human bound and blindfolded in the corner. Thankfully they had managed to wrap him with a blanket in sort of a makeshift robe on the ride over here.

Levra, dressed as an escort in a one piece dancers outfit and matching heels that were too big for her, stepped forward and dug into her cleavage and extracted a credit chit which she handed to the clerk

"The dog doesn't carry any possessions with him when he's in heat. Pays up front for the whole week!" she ad-libbed with a smirk, placing her spiked heel on the humans struggling chest for emphasis.

"I see, strange humans." He wondered, scanning the chit and handing it back to her. "Now move along, more customers waiting!" gesturing for the next couple to come forward, a quarian and a krogan of all things who seemed to be looking everywhere but at each other.

Tela quickly hosted the human up with a controlled biotic field and allowed Levra to push him to the elevator, leaving the love hotels busy foyer behind. With the doors closed she dropped the human who landed with a bang.

"The dog?" she questioned, looking at Levra out of the corner of her eye while watching the numbers flit by signaling their ascent.

"Seemed fitting." the other woman shrugged then lightly kicked the still writhing man. "Doesn't it Juju?"

Tela rolled her eyes, "Whatever, let's just get him to the room." she said, hefting the large suitcase that held her clothes, armor and weapons.

"Couldn't you of picked some better clothes!" Levra whined as she picked at where the outfit was bunching up on her ass.

"Be quiet!" she hissed as the elevator doors opened and she cast another lift, "You are not the only one enduring such humiliation!" Truth be told this wasn't the first time she had gone undercover as a prostitute, in all actuality it was an old Asari ploy, almost as old as the Republic itself. People often times overlooked what they perceived to beautiful as being weak. Her people had used that to their full advantage, whether to do violence as an assassin or coaxing the last few credits out of drunken spectators at a strip club. The Asari wielded sex appeal as a deadly weapon and they had done it longer and better than any others.

They reached the door and she had Levra open it before pushing the human inside and locking the door behind them.

They maneuvered the man to the bed where once again he was unceremoniously dropped. Quickly she activated a surveillance detection application on her omnitool and swept the room. Finding and disabling the lone camera, Tela turned to the more pressing matter and opened her suitcase.

"Here!" she tossed a pair of pants and a blouse to Levra and then retrieved her own clothes from within.

The other woman caught the bundle and began to change, "I still don't see why we had to pick this dump to stay in! I mean I know we had to leave after wrecking the apartment but still," she kicked a ball of wadded up tissues stained with some blue mystery liquid "Yuck!"

"We're here because this is the kind of place people go when they don't want to draw attention to themselves and right now that is exactly what we need." Tela explained while exchanging her heels for a much more comfortable and practical pair of boots.

"Oh? So what about that then?" she questioned gesturing towards the disabled camera where it laid on the table.

"Blackmail. This establishment is more than likely controlled by one of the Citadel's gangs." the Spectre pulled her shirt down over bra and zipped up her pants, "They use the nature of this business to extract incriminating evidence in order to extort money from V. ."

Levra snorted from within the confines of her blouse as she pulled it up over her head. "VIPs? Heh, in this dump? Yeah right! More likely to find a sand-addict blowing a suit-rat for a bag of flava-snacks!"

Surprisingly Levra had a valid point for once, which meant that maybe the camera's served some other purpose. She finished lacing up her boots and turned to the tiny rooms sink and began to remove the makeup that covered her bruises and cuts. However she stopped short and decided not to. Better to appear unharmed for what was to come.

"So is this how all SPECTREs live? I have to say I was expecting you know like, not a palace but something with a little more, class?" she tilted her head towards the faded wallpaper that barely clung to life.

"You've watched too many movies. This is all coming from my personal accounts." It was true, being a SPECTRE gave you almost unlimited authority to act, but for a clandestine investigative and wet work agency they were notoriously thrifty. You had to work through about the Citadel's length worth of red tape, put in for a "CG Form I-2131R Fund Requisition" and wait five to six months for your request to go through. Then you'd have to log and annotate every expenditure and return the excess credits at the end of the projected work period.

Long story short, it was painfully inefficient and time wasting to boot, thus most SPECTREs preferred to instead rely on their own fortunes . Since they didn't fall under the law's of regular Citadel conventions it was rather easy to maintain a fat account, collecting bounties, impounding illegal items and seizing enemy assets.

"Besides what part of low-key has you defunct mind still not grasped?" Tela stood "Now shut up and bring that chair over here." she ordered as she composed herself for what would happen next.

*()*

Joseph stopped yelling when he was picked up like a doll and transported into what he assumed was an elevator by the slight increase in gravity. He knew that whatever the alien's had planned it was more than likely going to come to a head soon. If they weren't pissed off before they probably were now, trashing their apartment and bloodying one of their members would probably do that.

The next sensation he felt was one of surprise as he was dropped again, this time onto what he assumed was some sort of cushion which tilted and slid as he moved. If he had had his eyesight available he would of seen it for what it was, a tacky novelty waterbed shaped in an oval pattern and covered with the ugliest violet colored duvet ever to be witnessed by the galaxy.

Instead the only thing his eyes told him is the lights suddenly going out, the shadows in the pants blindfold growing darker. Soon enough his body became weightless again and his stomach bottomed out as he was lifted in the air.

He was planted in a chair and felt as two pairs of hands anchored him to it with more rope. Their task complete the hands retreated and he was left sitting alone for a few nerve racking minutes. Then a hand was grabbing the top of his makeshift blindfold and ripping the offensive garment away. Able to finally breathe without the stench of Turian in his nostrils he took in the room he had found himself in, though there wasn't much see. The room was almost completely dark, though he didn't know what planet he was on or even what solar system so it could have been night outside or maybe it was just the lights.

From his surroundings all he could tell was that he was in some kind motel room and a cheap one at that if the shoddy look of the furniture. Seeing his captors gone for the minute he tried his bonds, the process becoming familiar. However he didn't get far in his exploration this time as a steel like grip pushed him heavily back into the chairs seat. He craned his his head back as far as it could go to try and see who was behind him.

The heavy smack took him by surprise and threw his head back to the front his cheek stinging from the blow. A deceptively slim gloved hand reached around his right and activated his omnitool's interface and entered a code then retreated back into the shadows.

"Human, you should be able to understand me, nod your head if this is true." A calm feminine voice that he vaguely recognized ordered.

"What do..." Another smack silenced his outburst his jaw snapping shut with a click.

"You will not speak unless I allow it. Now again. Nod your head if you can understand me."

This time he complied, bobbing his head up and down in acknowledgment.

"Excellent." the voice sounded smug, as if it had won a victory. The sound of someone slowly pacing back and forth behind him reached his ears. "Now, what is your name?"

_'Not getting shit out of me!' _Joseph grit his teeth and made a growling noise in his throat. This didn't please his interrogator and he expected the slap that came. What he didn't expect was the level of force behind it, literally launching his hundred and two kilo body smashing to the ground. A boot was placed on his neck constricting his trachea and he struggled to breathe.

It was strange, before the events on the _Moonside Glory_ he would have been shaking in his boots so to speak. Something had changed though as if with the death of his ill fated comrades, like a part of him had died alongside them out in that cargo bay. His inhibitions seemed to be lifted, sure he still felt fear but it no longer controlled him. He hadn't noticed it until now but the feeling was strangely liberating.

It reminded him of something he had once been told, it tickled the edges of his mind in familiarity.

Ironically for the first time in his life he felt truly in control, even if he was currently being restrained and tortured by vicious alien pirates in some hell hole located god knows where. He had faced his fear, seized it and broke it like a wild horse.

So he did what he felt like. He laughed. Of course it came out as a dry rasping gurgle, but he figured the Asari got the gist of it as the pressure on his neck only increased. Soon his vision began to get fuzzy and his thoughts blur as he once again was brought to the brink of unconsciousness, an annoying habit that he had recently acquired.

"Hmpf." his assailant lifted her foot from his neck and hauled him back up to a upright position. She patted his head in an almost fond manner before grasping his cropped hair and walking around him, twisting his head to one side. "I see you are dead set on making this difficult." She relinquished her hold and sat in front of him on the bed, slightly bobbing up and down as the liquid shifted under her.

His suspicions were confirmed, it was indeed the alien whom he had fought and lost to in that apartment. He would recognize those distinctive teal colored tattoos anywhere and the haughty way she regarded him was quickly becoming a pet peeve.

"Human you are a strange case, I ran your biometric data through our databases with no match. So I can assume you not not ex-Alliance military." he had to admit her voice was hypnotically serene. She crossed her legs, a picture of perfect alien elegance, equal parts horror and beauty. He was off put once again by the similarities between the Asari and human women, the uncanny valley if you will. Unsettling.

"Since you don't seem willing to divulge such simple information, you are forcing me to take what I need instead," the alien removed her gloves one at a time, "by force."

"Fuck you, you blue skinned alien whore!" he spat a globule of blood and mucus at the alien. However his show of defiance fell short as it merely trickled down his chin, the result of his accumulated dehydration. The alien just chuckled at his predicament, a deep rich sound.

"I admire your courage human, it is one of things I've always found fascinating about your species." her cool hands traced his five-o'clock shadowed chin almost sensually. He recoiled from her touch, trying to push away back into the chair's padded back. "Living such short and brutal lives in a galaxy that you were never prepared to face. A futile struggle against an eternity of violence and darkness."

Bio-electric pulses of blue energy began to convalesce around her form as her eyes took an devilish black. "We Asari however, do not struggle, instead we embrace it."

And the world dissolved to black.

*()*

Tela shuddered in orgasmic bliss as her nervous system was connected on every level with the man in front of her. It had been a long time since she had performed the meld with anyone and she took a moment to enjoy the release it gave her. At that moment she could understand the plight of the Ardat-Yakshi, the stain on her races honor, to mate, hunt and consume.

However this wasn't for pleasure and she reluctantly focused her mind and penetrated the outer layers of the prisoner's mind. She bypassed his surface thoughts and headed deep within his id, the core of his very being. She would come back to the surface later but for now she needed an anchor to keep herself centered.

She reached for something that felt worn and well used, the thought ingrained into his mind like the wind-eroded rocks of a thousand years. Finding it she pulled it up form his subconscious and transferred it to her conscious mind.

_'Joseph Miller.' _well she had a name and from there she could branch out and find what she needed. Like an advanced search algorithm she filtered through his memories, ignoring treasured childhood memories in favor of more recent memories.

With annoyance she realized she had drifted to far in her search and their recent sparring match played back to her from his eyes this time. She winced as she was forced to relive his pain, the memory still fresh enough to cause discomfort.

Withdrawing from the mental misfire, she moved back, tracing his anecdotal experiences back to a week or so prior. After what seemed like an eternity she found what she was looking for.

_"__Gentlemen, for the next two weeks you will be tasked out with guard duty. Expect threat level to be minimal as we will be aboard a civilian freighter traveling through the heart of the galaxy." _

In her minds eye a holo-projector changed slides, moving from a picture of the said freighter to a picture of a big W encircled by a cog. As always when viewing memories the picture was fuzzy and indistinct, almost like a dream. She was lucky it hadn't happened long ago, the further back the harder it was to find, becoming hazier and hazier until it was more like vague impressions.

_"__The clients for this op is Westablish Industries, the ships coming out of the Terminus Systems, apparently they have a small R&D outpost on a planet called Fehl Prime. We will travel to the rendezvous point in system and assume security from the a local security agency from there. Point of contact for the mission is Raymond Dukes, Ana I want you to get in contact with Mr. Dukes and figure out if we'll have to bring any supplies or if they'll be supplied." _The "camera" panned to a dark haired woman who nodded her head and jotted something down on a data slate. _"The end state is Bekenstien, which as you know is located in the Widow system, making it a close neighbor to the Citadel, so be on your best behavior!" _

_"__Yes, sir." _was the mumbled response and she found her own ghostly lips mouthing the words alongside the memory. At this point Tela extracted from the memory, having learned all that she could. She let the memories flow forward in time, feeling for any sensation of vertigo or confinement that would signal the man had boarded a ship.

She found what she was looking for and dove back in.

_"__Miller, carry that weapon like you mean it! We don't want to give a shitty first impression!" _the woman from the briefing barked at her and she quickly shuffled her weapon up to her shoulder. _"That's better now, shut up and keep an eye out! I don't trust this local muscle as far as I could throw em'!" _Tela nodded her head in agreement and the group moved out down the docking ring.

With a whoosh of warm air the other ships air-lock opened and the group rushed inside. Walking a few meters inside they met a group of men dressed in jet black armor. Two of them lounged on a stack of crates and another leaned casually against the wall, smoking a cigarette. His chest was crisscrossed with rigging holding grenades, flares and canteens. None of them wore any kind of distinct markings, but the way their fingers caressed their weapons and eyes sized up her team it was pretty obvious these guys were professionals.

"_Hi! We're from PSG, here to relieve you guys." _Ana walked up to the man smoking and held out her hand, which he promptly ignored. Instead he took a big breath of smoke and blew it in her face which caused her squad leader to begin coughing.

_"__'Bout time you squabs showed up! Hur we thought you gotten lost!" _he snickered with a thick foreign accent and flicked the remains of his cigarette onto the floor and ground it under his boot. _"Come on lad's! Let's leave tha ladies alone 'fore we catch the runs!" _The other men got up and followed him out the still open airlock.

One of them a particularly ugly brute with a long scraggly beard, purposely plowed into her shoulder as he passed, his yellow teeth showing as he let out a phlegm filled cackle. She glowered at him under her helmet and started to move forward until Tien moved forward and grabbed his wrist.

_"__Let it go Miller-san, best behaviour remember?" _the shorter man reminded and she relaxed, still glaring daggers at the man that had shoulder checked her. He smiled wickedly at her and spat a glob of green spit on the ground.

_"__Pussy!" _the thug laughed and turned back down the umbilicus and she cast one last hate filled glance at the bastards tattooed neck. _'What a stupid tattoo! Who gets a heart on the back of his neck!' _she had thought, looking at the heart with a sword stuck downwards in it, almost like an inverted T.

_'T, T? Terran heart?' _Tela made the connection after a few minutes thought, it was a hypothesis but it fit. It would make sense for the terrorist organization to safeguard their cargo off world and then dump it in the hands of a private military company to maintain plausible deniability. Though the connection between Westablish and Terran heart she had yet to make. Maybe this Raymond Dukes would know? But first she had to get out of the memory.

It was harder this time to disconnect, the level of shared emotions had been greater and she had had trouble telling herself apart from Miller. However she managed to keep them separate and pulled back out of the memory and back into the relatively calmer currents of his surface thoughts.

_'I feel that is all I need from you Joseph Miller.' _she concluded and began to distance herself even further, preparing to end the meld and return to her own body. _'So with this I say goodbye.'_

It was an incredibly dangerous procedure that she had just performed, retrieving data from an unwilling participant of the meld. It was akin, her mother had once said, to having your very essence raped and defiled, ripped out of you and taken by an unyielding force. The recipient of the mental interrogation almost never survived and if they did it would have been better of if they hadn't, most of the time returning as nothing more than hollow shells. The mental and chemical trauma they had endured would reduce them to something akin to a vegetable.

This was why this act was a taboo in Asari culture and only to be used in the direst of circumstances. Its misuse was treated as a serious crime, being akin to the desecration of the Ardat-Yakshi, only worse because it was controllable.

It was with these thoughts that Tela began to doubt her course of action. She was self-admittedly a callous and hard woman, but she had effectively killed this human, whose only crimes were defending himself.

_'Of course isn't that the purpose of the SPECTRE's? To work in the shadows and accomplish the mission no matter the cost, no matter those hurt along the way? To fight and win against the demons of the universe only to become something even worse?' _There was no room for regret, after all the deed was already done and there was still a mission to accomplish. That came before everything everything else, including her decency and pride.

So she began her ascent again, pulling further and further away from the center of the fusion. She was almost out, passing through his surface thoughts which had quieted considerably, seemingly responding to the trauma that she had inflicted, like a dying animal in its death throes.

Yes she was almost home free, but of course that's when she felt it. A distant memory that had been drifting to the edge of a dying mind before bursting on the surface. Like a maelstrom of emotion and depth it pulled her incorporeal form into its heart.

A little Joseph Miller sat against the back of one of his family's Agro-shed's with his knee's clutched up to his chest. A trail of tears ran down a bruised and mud stained face, creating little furrows as they dripped down his face and into the dewy grass below. He heaved with wracking sobs as he cried into his ripped jacket, the warm sun beating the top of his shaved head where the words, coward, pussy and stupid were cruelly sketched in permanent marker.

A shadow fell over him as someone came to a stop in front of him, but he didn't look up and instead clutched himself tighter.

_"__Joe! What the hell happened?" _the rough voice of his older brother Peter asked in concern and he moved to place a hand on his little brother's shoulder.

_"__Leave me alone!" _he cried, pushing his brother's hand away. Peter pulled his hand back and stood there, watching with sympathy. Moving slowly he walked to the wall and slid down until he was sitting next to him.

_"__Was it those bullies again?" _he asked and Joseph continued to weep, nodding his head in affirmation. Peter sighed _"You know they'll never stop until you stand up to them." _

_"__I-I did! I told them to stop and they just laughed at me!" _the weeping child sniffled, _"They said I was weak and a stupid farming hick! They said I didn't deserve to walk down the same street!"_

_"__Joe, they don't know what they're talking about!" _Peter attempted to calm him.

_"__No! They're right! I was too scared to stop them so I ran and they caught me!" _he lifted his head up for the first time and looked at his brother with red rimmed eyes and a snotty nose. _"I'm not like you Peter, I'm not like Dad, I'm not strong! I'm always gonna be weak just like they said! I'm just so scared! A coward!" _he wailed and sunk he head back into his chest, his sobbing coming back strong.

They sat there in silence for a while, the only sound Joe's weeping and the chirping of birds. After a while Joseph felt the thick arms of his brother hug him in brotherly affection.

_"__Joe listen to me." _his brothers comforting voice was serious, _"Being scared is only natural, it's what keeps us fighting." _

_"__What, what do you mean?"_

_"__Do you really think Dad wasn't scared when he went to Shanxi and fought those Turian bastards? Do you think I wasn't scared when I left home to join the Alliance? People thought I was crazy, some thought I was a coward for leaving the family and Eden behind!" _it was true, a year ago his brother had left for Marine boot, he was only home for a short time on leave until he shipped out again.

_"__No! Of course not! You and dad are heroes!"_

_"__Well you'd be wrong, I know I was scared, leaving home for the first time, leaving the world behind and going to earth! And I bet you a hundred credits that dad would say the same thing!" _

_"__He, he would?" _

_"__Sure. Joe, you can't ever get rid of fear, but that doesn't mean you don't give up for anything! A real man faces that fear and keeps going, no matter what! He keeps going to protect his family, friends and his honor! The only thing that can stop you is yourself!" _Letting go his brother stood and walked forward a few paces, his gigantic body framed in the light of the setting sun like a hero in one of the old movies their dad was so fond of.

_"__Little brother, the blood that flows in my veins is the same that runs in yours! I know you'll make us proud one day and go on to do great things! You'll take that fear as your own and conquer the whole galaxy!" _he turned his head to the side, smiled and threw a thumbs up. _"You just have to reach out and take it!" _Joseph wiped the snot from his nose and regarded his brother with awe.

_"__Take what? Tell me!" _

_"__You'll just have to find that out for yourself." _his big brother chuckled and slowly walked away into the sunset. It was the last time he would see him, his big brother had gone missing on mission to combat some Batarian slavers on Mindnoir a year ago and was pronounced MIA shortly after.

Tela mentally reeled from the raw emotion that flowed from the memory like a dam bursting under incredible pressure. It had been so vivid, obviously this was a life changing event for Joseph, one of the defining core tenant that made up his "soul."

She realized that she couldn't kill this man, it would be an unforgivable travesty to snuff out this man life when it was just beginning. Maybe she was still suffering from the shared consciousness of the meld or maybe she had truly had a change of heart she didn't know.

_'But what can I do? I could, no that would be just as bad." _she wondered, _'But he would have a chance.' _

She was thinking of doing something that was practically unheard of, altering the meld partners mind through brute force. This was something that was even worse than taking information because you could very easily create a blank slate, a mind without personality, without a soul. Though in this case it could be what saved the man's life by undoing some of the damage she had incurred. It was almost never done, though it was viable as she was already in a position of power within the mind-scape. She would just have to be careful not to completely destroy his psyche, though the alternative was just as bad.

She made her decision.

Gathering her mental fortitude she dove back into the depths of their shared mind and began to cut out damaged memories. The faded tatters of an entire life drifted back into the deepest parts of his brain, shredded beyond recognition. As she worked she felt the strain that the mind-scape was under began to fade; so she increased her mental attack taking more and more.

She made careful not to touch the core however, the very culmination of twenty six years of emotion and feeling, instincts honed and lessons learned the hard way.

After what felt like an eternity she let herself drift away again, taking in her work. Where they once was a mess of tattered remnants of a mind, now lay an organized infant tool ready to be shaped and used.

Tela let the light envelop her as she left the meld and the alien landscape behind.

*()*

Tela awoke to the most powerful orgasm of her life, her entire body flooded with innumerable amounts of endorphins as she exited the meld. Her heart beat a million times of minute and she immediately collapsed back on the bed in utter exhaustion. She wouldn't admit it but she had come very close to death in her efforts. The strain she had placed on her body had almost been too great to bear and she doubted she would ever be able to replicate the feat.

Saying a heartfelt prayer to the goddess she struggled to sit up but found it was in vain. However a pair of girlish hands supported her and she found Levra trying to rouse her in an almost frenzied state.

"Tela, Tela, oh please don't be dead! I don't know how'd I'd explain this to C-SEC!" the younger Asari hysterically shouted as she shook her. "I've never seen a meld like that! You nearly burned the whole place to ashes! I had to throw water on you before you went into meltdown!"

Indeed Tela now felt the wetness around her and on the bed, the soaked mattress actually showing signs of the early stages of combustion from her intense biotic effort. With some effort she managed to speak. "How long?" she gasped.

"How long? How long? You were gone for over two hours! I thought you were stuck so I tried to break the connection but I couldn't!" the girl was almost in tears and she had latched on to Tela's arm in a death grip.

"Levra, quit your blubbering you hopeless girl and help me sit up." she commanded, mustering as much command as she could.

"Sure, sure, I'm just glad you're okay." Levra mumbled with a blush on her face, no doubt feeling more than slightly embarrassed at her loss of control. Still though between the both of them they managed to get Tela up. Once there she wasted no time in checking on the condition of the man in front of her, his eyes were closed and he was slumped over in the chair, his big frame completely limp and unresponsive. Checking his pulse she admitted that she was relieved that he was alive. His mind though was a different matter. There would be no way to tell until he woke up. If he ever did.

"Get me some water." her voice cracked and Levra jumped to comply, coming back with paper cup filled with water. Tela accepted it and downed it in one gulp. "Get my armor Levra, we're leaving."

"Oh, okay!" she got up to gather what was asked but stopped halfway "What about him?"

Tela shook her head and looked at the man who she had just got down stripping and rewiring and like a worn out weapon.

"We won't know until he wakes up."

*()*

He woke up screaming.

His head felt like it had been ran over by a tank. Burning fingers seared into forehead and he tried to press his fingers into his eyes. Or he would of if they could move. Instead he found his hands bound to a chair as were his feet. He searched for some explanation of his current predicament but came up blank, like there was a hole where a memory had once been. He tried to fish deeper for something, anything, but again there was nothing. With growing panic he attempted to remember anything, where he was, what he was doing, where he was born, who his family was, who he was!

Nothing, nothing. His breathing increased and he whipped his body back and forth like a madman, crying out to the heavens for some sort of relief. Like an answer for above something came.

It was a fragment, nothing more like a film that had been chopped up and rearranged in random. A large man standing in the dying light of some alien sun as he watched from below.

_"__Little brother, the blood that flows in my veins is the same that runs in yours! I know you'll make us proud one day and go on to do great things! You'll take that fear as your own and conquer the whole galaxy!" _he turned his head to the side, smiled and threw a thumbs up. _"You just have to reach out and take it!"_Like the end of the film the scene faded to black.

It was strange but for some reason he felt comforted. Quite the opposite when he looked up and noticed for the first time another person in the room. The strange head tentacles and blue complexion identified her as being something other, lesser, than human.

_'Asari.' _his damaged mind supplied hatefully and his fists tightened in anticipation of violence and he faced the witch with righteous demanding anger.

"What have you done to me!?"

A/N: Changed the timeline for Mindoir


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer**

The author acknowledges lack of ownership of Mass Effect and any associated intellectual property.

Tela Vasir: Hard Point

V

"What have you done to me!" Tela blinked as the bound human screamed at her, straining at his bonds in an attempt to close the distance between them. This unexpected outburst took her unawares. He should have had no memory of well anything, but here he was freshly awakened and demanding answers. She would have to determine just how much memory he had retained.

"You were gravely wounded and I found you." the lie flowed easily from her lips, "I brought you here and tended your wounds, but you became unconscious." she waited for him to respond.

The anger slowly faded from the man's face to be replaced with confusion. "How," he gulped "what happened?" Tela felt inwardly relieved, it seemed that the technique was a success but she had to be sure.

"We found you laying in an alley not far from here. You appeared to have been in some sort of struggle." she gestured to the recently changed bandages on his leg. "When we found you, you had already lost a significant amount of blood. Do you remember anything, anything at all?" The man scrunched up his face in concentration but after a time he simply shook his head.

"No, I mean, I can remember some things but the rest is like, it's just gone." his voice sounded so sorrowfully empty, a stark contrast to the fire it had burned with just seconds ago. Honestly she felt a pang of guilt, but didn't allow it to break past her carefully built facade.

"I see. I've heard that while unusual sometimes great emotional and physical trauma can cause this sort of reaction in your species. Perhaps it would return if you were to see or hear something familiar?" at this his face brightened considerably, the seeds of hope planted by her manipulation.

"Yeah, maybe. Where am I? Did I have anything? Clothes or an ID?" Tela shook her head in response.

"No, unfortunately it seems anything significant was taken after you were attacked, even your omnitool was missing. As to where we are this is a hotel on the Citadel" she put as much regret into her voice and the human looked at his wrist were his omnitool would have been located. "Your clothes were soiled so I had my assistant Levra throw them away."

"Oh." he replied sullenly, glancing to his sore wrists, still tied with cord. "Why am I all tied up?"

Tela hesitated for a second before answering. "When we first brought you here, you were frantic, thrashing madly like a rabid animal. I restrained you so you could not hurt yourself, or anyone else." she waited giving the man a chance to digest the information before moving on.

"Okay, well that makes sense I guess." he admitted, "I'm fine now though, don't particularly feel the need to hurt anything."

"Of course, give me a moment." she moved to undo his bindings but paused when he flinched as she came close. "Are you alright?"

The man shrugged "Yeah, just a feeling I'm not to used to being around _your_ kind. It feels, nevermind."

"I see." she stated simply and began to untie on the knots, well aware of the man's brown eyes burning into the top of her head as she worked. She finished one and moved to another before he spoke again.

"So what do I call you? It seems impolite not to ask you name after you _saved_ me and all." he asked, his tone slightly bitter as if he found that thought distasteful.

"Tela Vasir, I am an Asari, which is a species..."

"I know what you are!" he interrupted, the outburst causing her to look up with him as she paused in untying the last binding.

"Are you well?" she questioned and in response he grunted affirmative and motioned for her to continue, rubbing his wrists once freed.

"Yes, I don't know... Sorry." he seemed out of sorts, as if trying to figure something out that was going on in his mind.

"I do not need your apology. Peace is all I require." she said as she pulled away, "Levra could you please bring our guest something to wear."

"Kay!" the other Asari answered and brought one of the complimentary robes that the hotel provided and dropped it in the man's lap. He jumped as it landed on his still tender thigh and Tela clicked her tongue in exasperation.

"Be careful girl!" she scolded and moved back further so that the human had room to stand. "He has suffered enough for the time being without adding your clumsiness."

"Oh, sorry monkey!" Levra slyly stated, before wrapping her arms around the human who was still sitting. "I'm sorry I hurt you, can I make it better?" she whispered in his ear and the man shot up as if electrocuted, fifty thousand volts of pure revulsion appearing to course through his veins. Tela prepared her biotics to immobilize him if necessary.

Instead of violence, the man merely sputtered in confusion, looking at Levra as if she had grown a second head.

"What the hell?" he shouted, before for the first time seeming to notice his undressed state. Immediately his face went beet red and he moved his hands to cover his shame. Levra cackled evilly, and Tela merely stood and handed the dropped robe to the him. He snatched it out of her hands and turned and donned the flimsy garment. Tela had to chuckle inwardly at the sight, the garment barely being able to cover the man's genitals, his frame much to big for clothing designed for someone of average height.

"So," he began "you two are..." he left the question hanging but Tela could fill in the blanks. She was well aware of her species reputation in the galaxies entertainment sector.

"I am a Council SPECTRE." she solemnly announced and waited for the recognition, the fear, the suspicion, but they never came.

"A Specter? Like a ghost?" she suddenly felt an urge she hadn't felt in many, many, years. It was such a powerful urge that she couldn't resist no matter how hard she tried.

So she rolled her eyes.

"No, a SPECTRE is an agent of the Citadel tasked with investigation, espionage and direct intervention if necessary. This is Levra my pilot."

"So what you're like James Bond?" he scoffed and Tela merely blinked.

"Who?"

"Umm never mind." he scratched the back his head, "So what now? Do you have to kill me now that I've found out your secret identities or something?"

"I considered it," again Tela told the truth, it certainly would of simplified things. "but I believe now that it will not be necessary. I do not take lives without reason."

"That's good, I guess. So I'm free to go then?" he sounded relieved and she noticed his fists relaxing.

"Yes, you are free to go." she answered and he glanced past Levra to the door.

"Um, yeah okay." he started for the door but hesitated with his hand on the interface. "Thank you." he spoke, his words full of sincerity. He regarded both of them for a moment longer and turned to leave.

"I have proposition for you." Tela spoke, weighing heavily on the implications of what she was about to do, "I have need of able-bodied talent. If it would please you, you could accompany me as a member of my team."

"What? Why would you need me?"

"You are a particularly large example of your species and would be a valuable asset." she hadn't been able to predict how he would react to this.

"That doesn't make any sense." he defensibly stated, crossing his large arms over his chest, "There are plenty of other "large" people around I'm sure. Now I'll ask again why do you need me and no bullshit."

Tela decided to change tactics. "I would feel remiss if I were to turn you loose with you in current condition."

"Why? Shouldn't I go to a doctor or something? Not running around the galaxy with a woman I barely know doing god knows what seems like a good idea to me!" Tela was at a loss, it was a logical argument and she really had no right to ask anything of him. He was a threat no longer and truly she couldn't force him to fight for her. That is if he was even able to fight anymore for all she knew he had forgotten what little skills he had possessed.

For not the first time she questioned what the hell she was doing. It's not like the man was a prodigy, his fighting skills had been average on best. _'So what am I doing?'_

Maybe it was something else, maybe she lusted for the ability to shape this blank slate, to have someone to control, a pawn that she would deploy in a game of her own choosing. It was a dark thought and she knew that it was wrong to use someone like that. That's something that someone of evil intent would do and while she was uncompromising in her pursuit for justice and victory she didn't feel as if that should be her motive.

_'You'll take that fear as your own and conquer the whole galaxy! You just have to reach out and take it!' _That particular foreign memory popped into her head unbidden and she through it realized a certain truth.

Maybe she just wanted to see what would happen.

*()*

The man stared at this alien who had introduced herself as Tela Vasir as he waited for her to answer his last question. None of this really made any sense. He was about to ask the question again thinking she hadn't heard it.

"You owe me." he wasn't expecting that and expressed his surprise.

"What the hell are you talking about? Woman you're starting to piss me off." he growled.

"You owe me your life." she started to walk towards him and he backed into the door, unsure of just how to react to this new argument.

"I don't know what you're talking about! You can't just say something like that!"

"Yes I can. You will accompany me because without me you would be dead. I will not take no for an answer."

He could say no, regardless of whether or not she was some secret agent, he could probably take her. But to what purpose? He didn't have an identity, something that he felt he would have to deal with in the future, nowhere to go, no money and no future.

At the moment he couldn't do any better so it was logical to grasp the first lifeline that came his way. Still though his instincts were telling him to run and never look back.

*()*

Tela watched the gears grind in the man's head as he processed what he had been told. This process lasted for a few minutes before he simply nodded his head.

"Okay." It was a simple enough declaration but she knew the significance of it. He was giving into her will and placing himself in her hands.

"Very well, help Levra gather the luggage." she gestured and he started to move away from the door but stopped midway.

"Before I passed out, did I at least say my name?" he asked and she could see from the look in his eyes that he knew the answer before she even spoke.

"No, unfortunately you did not."

"I see." his eyes dropped and she could almost see the despair in the air around him. Maybe she could help, he wouldn't be of any use to her as a depressed basket case.

"In the meantime I recommend you choosing a stand in, at least until you remember your true name. It will grow unduly tiresome if I have to refer to you as human." she suggested and his face lit up. It was almost too easy to manipulate and predict this man's emotions, it was intoxicating.

"Ooh! I have just the perfect name you'll just love!" Levra popped up in between them, seemingly appearing straight out of thin air. "We can call you Ju..."

Tela held up her hand, silencing the other Asari. "We will not call him JuJu Levra!"

"Hmph!" the pilot pouted and stuck out her tongue. "Stupid, we found him don't get to name him, JuJu's a good name..." she muttered as she slunk away.

"Ignore her, I'm sure this is something you will want to take your time deciding." she waved off the fools shenanigans as they moved to pick up all of their bags. Collecting them all the three of them exited the room and proceeded down the hallway. However a problem was uncovered as they reached the elevator. The man looked at her with pleading eyes as he struggled to keep his robe from betraying his modesty. He gave a sheepish grin as he tried and failed to prevent that from happening.

"Um, can somebody get me some clothes."

*()*

Levra bounced excitedly on the balls of her feet outside of the changing room of a clothing store in the downtown portion of the Vongal ward. Inside she could hear the rustling of clothes and an occasional coming from the man on the inside and she smirked at his discomfort.

Across from her the ever beautiful Vasir sat calmly examining her fingernails for invisible dirt. She looked so different now from than she had before after she had melded with the human, Levra had actually feared for her new bosses life in a way that had surprised even her. Seeing the seemingly invulnerable SPECTRE in such a state had been nerve racking. If she had died.

_'Well it wouldn't be the first time that my employer had died on me!' _she thought jokingly, but this time was different. This could be the opportunity that she had been waiting for! To be a SPECTRE, well SPECTRE's associate, was a great honor but more importantly undoubtedly would have a great cash flow! Maybe if she played her cards right she could luck out in other areas...

Levra jumped as the door to the changing room slammed open and the human emerged. She giggled at the sight. The jacket and pants were obviously not made for someone of his stature and they constricted his arms and joints in an extremely amusing way. He held his arms up to the side as the sleeves were too tight for him to relax.

"They're a little tight." he huffed as he rotated to let Tela get a good look at them, who regarded him with an analytical eye.

"Unfortunately these are the largest set they have. If we were to find any more suitable outfits we would have to visit a tailor. Or a store that caters to Krogans."

"I guess they'll have to hack it then." he hefted the pile of similar clothes, "I'm good then." he eyed the robe he had been wearing with disgust and kicked it off the bench.

Soon they had reached the checkout counter and the Turian woman behind it began to scan their purchases, giving the pair a curious glance. When she had finished, including the boots and clothes the man was still wearing.

"Your total comes to four hundred and fifteen credits." the saleswoman stated and Levra whistled through her teeth.

"What are you charging by the meter?" she quipped and the Turian hit her with an glare. Tela for her part nonchalantly handed over one of her credit chits. The woman behind the counter smiled at the SPECTRE and accepted the chit, before charging it and handing it back.

"Thank you for shopping at Palaven Imports! Please do come again."

Tela nodded her thanks and left and Levra hurried to follow, the big human pulling up the rear with his hands full of his recently acquired supplies.

Stopping abruptly Tela held her hand to her head as her omnitool began to chirp with an incoming call. "This is Vasir. Yes, I am still on-site. Yes, yes. Yes Mistress I understand." she terminated the call as she dropped her arm. "Follow me."

With that the trio moved to an taxi terminal. They didn't have to wait long before their ride appeared and they hurried inside.

After a few minutes of flying they approached their destination and Levra was only half surprised to see the titanic frame of the Presidium Tower quickly growing bigger on the artificial horizon. Before long they reached their destination and Tela hastily paid the automated system before bustling them out of the cab and onto the street.

Their next stop was the elevator.

Levra bashed her head against the wall as time began to slow and distort, as the transport cube continued its crawling ascent.

_'There's no explainable reason for this to be taking so long! Not unless it was somehow designed just to make our lives a living hell!' _she mentally griped as the elevator continued up, then appeared to move backwards. _'Seriously we should of just taken the stairs! There is no possible way this could get any worse!' _

Rising unbidden from the depths of some abyssal hell the gods of bad fortune decided to piss on her sense of irony. With a shudder and a sudden stop the transport came to a halt and the doors sprang open with a grating ding and in what poured what appeared to be the entire citadels population of Salarians.

The horde advanced without remorse and Levra did the only thing she could, hold up her arms and scream as she was squished into the wall by the teeming mass of amphibious flesh. Soon there wasn't a single centimeter of free space left. As she tried to breath she look around and found Vasir in similar dire straits. Much to her chagrin however it seemed that the big human was being excluded from the squeezing, his large size earning him a buffer zone.

Struggling she finally managed to push herself off the wall and gain some room between a pair of Salarian dockworkers. It wouldn't be as bad if the unwelcome guests were at least polite enough to show a little decorum, but instead they were chattering and laughing as if this kind of thing was a daily occurrence.

The crowd shifted and she was once again crushed between two of the workers. _'I think I saw a porno once that started this way...' _she kicked the perverted side of her and turned back to the situation on hand. _'At least it can't be much longer, the Council chambers are what on the fiftieth floor?' _

She worked to crane her neck back to get a look at the digital display that displayed the floor number. _'Goddess dammit! Twenty one really? This is fucking ridiculous!' _

Tela watched in growing dread as the floors oh so slowly ticked by. _'Twenty two, twenty three, twenty four. Ugh! Twenty five, please kill me!' _she despaired as the elevator shuddered to a halt again. The door opened again and an elderly looking Krogan lowered his holographic newspaper and adjusted his comically undersized spectacles on the bridge of his nose. _'_

_You've got to be kidding!' _Levra thought as hers and twenty other pairs of eyes glared at the over grown lizard as he started plodding forward, the elevator groaning and dropping under the added weight. Parting the crowd he pressed on and the pressure only got worse.

It was a terrible time for her as she watched the numbers slowly advanced, nobody further getting on or off.

Finally after what seemed like an eternity the display read forty eight.

_'Finally!' _she sighed with relief, which she retracted as the elevator stopped at forty nine and the other passengers disembarked running out like a horde of rabid varren. Levra and Tela got up and stretched in their new found free space.

They left the elevator and headed up the stairs to the Council Chambers, passing through an extensive security checkpoint which included an x-ray and pat down. Presidium Guards stood silent watch from shadowed alcoves as they approached the doors that led to the Council's meeting room.

"Remain out here, I will return." Tela said simply and pushed open the double doors as she swept inside, leaving the two of them waiting in the hall.

"So, Juju." she began but the human cut her off.

"My name is not Juju."

"Well then you have a better idea?" she teased and took a seat with her legs crossed on a bench nearby. The human glanced at the open seat next to her but shook his head and instead leaned against the adjacent wall with his arms crossed.

"No, but I know that it won't come from you." he spat and she cocked her head. Tela had informed her of the man's current condition, with no recollection he should have been more, "pliable". His apparent hostility was strange seeing as his first personal memories should have been of few hours ago, she would have to try and push his buttons to figure this all out.

"Why are you being such a ass?" she asked and he blinked at her frankness.

"What do you mean?"

"Is it because I'm an Asari or what?" she accused point blank. She remembered his racism before but that should of faded with the rest of his former life. This was going to be annoying if it hadn't, though he didn't seem to regard Tela in the same light, though maybe that was a fear thing.

"No, it's because I just don't like you." he replied simply as he opened up his omnitool and pointedly ended the conversation.

"Well that doesn't make me feel any better!" she ground out, "Well maybe we can start over heh? If we're gonna have to work together might as well make up!" she stood and held out her hand. However the man merely continued to browse through the extra-net on his omnitool, obviously ignoring her. Seeing this she fell back onto the bench, "Fine, be a dick, see if I care!"

They sat in silence for a little while, him reading a news article and her swinging her legs off the edge of the bench. After a while she swung her feet up on the bench and laid down. With her hands behind her head she closed her eyes. There was no telling how long Tela would be gone and she was running on about two hours of sleep for the last two days. _'Just rest my eyes for a bit, monkey doesn't want to be any fun anyways.'_

Before long she was fast asleep.

*()*

He looked through the transparent holo-display of his omnitool, taking a break from browsing the news to regard the alien slumbering on the bench in front of him. He had opened the extra-net with then intention of trying to get his bearings, or at least jog some memories. So far it had proved fruitless, in fact if anything it seemed to give him a searing headache whenever he tried to grasp at his past. It was truly strange, things like using his omnitool came seamlessly to him but even recalling something as simple as his name or his parents was met with nothing. For the time being he shuffled that conundrum to the back of his mind. It was pointless to stress himself out about this, better to just take it all in one step at a time.

He regarded the alien with mixed feelings. In all honesty like a lot of things he couldn't explain his reaction to her questions and the general hostility he felt in the presence of the alien women. He had no real reason to distrust them like he did, in fact so far their actions had only been beneficial. Other than the taller one, Tela, claiming that he owed her his life, they had been downright cordial.

Still though they bothered him, something told him deep inside telling him not to trust them. Like in his past life he had learned to trust no one without a human face.

_'Though I mean technically their faces are, well human-like. Lack of ears non-withstanding. Or hair, eyebrows, being blue.' _he wondered and closed out the extra-net windows he had open. With nothing else to do he picked through his bags. The clothing was pretty much the same thing, dark military style cargo pants with white shirts and subdued color jackets mostly black and brown. It was strange that an import company from Palaven would carry clothes fitted for humans but he supposed that was just economics, expanding markets, supply and demand and all that jazz.

Putting the bags down he surveyed their surroundings for the first time. High arched ceilings adorned with elaborate inlays and unintelligible alien script. Every couple of meters in the hallway there was a notch in the wall. Turian guards were stationed within each opening, their spotless rifles held at port arms as they stood motionless. Their ceremonial armor sparkled in the light cast by the overhead lighting and he suddenly felt very insecure at his current state of disarmament. In fact he felt exposed standing there in the face of all that alien firepower and he secretly wished that they had stopped at an armor merchant instead.

The next hour pasted uneventfully, his asari companion sleeping soundly and him resuming his browsing of current events. At one point the monotony was broken by the passing of a strange four legged green creature as it silently lumbered by and disappeared into an unseen air-duct but other than that nothing of significance occurred.

It was approaching his third hour of waiting when the doors to the inner sanctum finally opened and Tela appeared. She walked quickly as if in a great hurry and took no time in rousing her fellow Asari from her slumber.

"Come now, we must be off! There is a frigate waiting for us at one of the ring's docking bays and we mustn't tarry!" she informed them once Levra had sat up.

"Where's we goin?" the still groggy pilot asked, rubbing her eyes that were red from sleep.

"Bekenstien." the SPECTRE stated and led the duo down the corridor and out past the security checkpoint. "We have business there to take care of."

Mercifully they were spared another elevator ride, the docking bay in question being only a few hundred meters away, probably more than likely the same one they had used when they had first docked at the station. When they arrived at the docking ring they were greeted by a contingent of armored Turian's belonging to the same group he had saw guarding the council chambers. One of the aliens, the only one currently not wearing a helmet, stepped forward and bowed.

"Lady Vasir, I am Captain Bora Tiber, the leader of the Presidium guard assigned to you for the duration of this mission." he intoned with a slightly metallic sounding pitch, his red painted mandibles moving out of sync with the translation, "We are honored to have been selected for such a delicate assignment. Our lives are yours!" he finished with a flair, holding one of his talons over where a human's heart would be.

"Thank you Captain," Tela inclined her head slightly and returned the gesture. "how soon are we able to depart?" The turian straightened his back and made a gesture that sent his men through the docking portal.

"We still have a few provisions to load, however I assure you milady _Furious Justice_ will be ready for departure within the hour." he gestured for her to enter the tube and fell into step beside her, Levra and the man following behind.

"Excellent, in the meantime I want you to gather your subordinates in the CIC for a mission briefing."

"At once SPECTRE." he acknowledged as the group crossed the transparent tube that linked the dry dock to the anchored Turian ship. It was here that the human got his first look at the might of Turian shipbuilding.

The craft was decidedly angular in design, looking almost like a bird of prey with it's wings locked back in a perpetual dive. The hull was clean of any identifying marks, quite strange but he supposed this was a Council ship and did not fall under the supervision of the Turian navy. The three-hundred meter vessel's engines were glowing slightly as they undoubtedly were prepared for transit, the deep blue tinge bathing the rear of the ship in an eerie light.

"What a butt-ugly design!" Levra whispered from where she walked next to him but he merely ignored her. Contrary to what she believed he thought the craft actually looked pretty good, a sort of predatory air that expressed both speed and lethality. Not that aerodynamics had any relevance in space flight but the aesthetic quality was definitely there.

Soon the were at the other end of the docking tube and passed through the ship's outer hull. Once inside they were forced to wait as bright ultra-violet light was projected throughout the air-lock. The purpose was to sanitize and disinfect the landing party, within the crowded confined quarters of a space ship disease could and would run rampant if gone unchecked.

When the sweep was completed there was a hiss of air as the pressure was equalized with the interior of the ship. With a mechanical clanking the interior door split down the middle and receded into the walls. When the group moved inside he got his first look at the inside of the ship.

It was well, not really anything too impressive, all dark gray walls and blue lighting. It appeared to be a hanger, full of boxes and other miscellaneous supplies. The center piece to the craft was two large shuttles of some sort. But from the amount of armor plating and weaponry adorning the crafts it was obvious that they were not civilian craft.

They halted and the Turian Captain turned to Tela, "SPECTRE Vasir, please accompany me to the conference room. The briefing will begin shortly." he reached out and lightly rested his hand on the small of Tela's back as he directed her towards one of the doors leading out of the hanger.

The man didn't know why but that ruffled his feathers a little bit, someone treating the cold Asari with familiarity that just seemed untoward. Before they left she told them to stay put and that she would come find them when she was done.

"Leaving the kids at daycare heh?" Levra put forward, leaving him alone to go check out the armored shuttles. She was intercepted partway by a stern flight technician who waved her off as she approached. After a few minutes of heated arguments she appeared to have convinced her to let her pass as the two disappeared between the crafts.

Seeing as he was probably going to be left to his own devices for a while again he cast around to find something to occupy himself. Noticing a a circle of Turians, both the armored ones and what he assumed to be the flight suit equipped crew, he decided to investigate. The closer he got, he noticed that they seemed to be cheering, the ring jostling and moving as the crowd excitedly watched something in the middle. Reaching the mob he stepped up to the group and saw what all the commotion was about.

Two turians, one with brown face paint and the other with white highlights all around his forehead, were wrestling each in the middle of the makeshift ring. They had stripped off all of their armor and upper garments and were gripping each others talons trying to tip the other off balance and send him onto the ground. Scaly muscles tensed as they battled through what looked to be a hell of a stalemate.

Without warning the white painted one jerked his opponent in close and delivered a savage headbutt. The other turian staggered back and with a roar the aggressor put all his weight forward and slammed his opponent head first into the metal deck. Leaping on top of his supine fellow he pinned him to the ground and wrapped one scaly arm around his neck.

After a few seconds the pinned man cried out, "Yield, I yield!" at which point another older looking turian with a three lines stenciled on his chest-plate came forward and pulled the winner off of his opponent. As soon as the two stood the referee raised the victors arms up and the crowd erupted into a roar, cat calls and shouts of congratulations mixing together in a riotous din.

Even more strangely however as soon as he was done basking in the crowds adulation, the winner reached down and helped the loser stand, the two clasping forearms before rejoining the spectators as if nothing had happened. As soon as they left the ring two more turians entered and the process began all over again.

He was confused about the whole thing and it must of shown on his face because one of the armored soldiers he was standing next to him turned to him and spoke.

"Human."

"Turian." it was a blunt answer to a blunt question and the Turian snorted in amusement.

"Enjoying yourself?" the alien asked and the man shook his head.

"Actually I don't understand what the hell's going on. Isn't this a military ship?" he questioned and the Turian laughed, the white paint around his mandibles and forehead rising up as he did.

"Aye, it is. This is just, I suppose you would say it's tradition."

"Tradition? Seems like a good way to get injured!" he countered and gestured to the ring where one of the combatants had just smashed another in the face with a powerful hay maker. "Doesn't seem like you'd want to lose men to some backstreet brawling."

"Well I suppose they do occasionally, but that's what the senior sergeant is doing in the ring. Making sure nothing gets out of hand." he pointed to the referee and the man watched as he rushed forward between the two fighters and checked on the downed turian.

"So okay, but why? For fun?" he asked and the turian shrugged.

"I suppose it is but the main reason is much more important. The fighters are men who have had a disagreement or some sort of misgivings." he explained as the downed man was drug out of the ring and the victor declared. "These problems are solved before leaving port, so that they don't interfere with the mission and allow the men to fight with a unclouded heart and clear conscience.

"I see. So what are you rules? I'm guessing you can't just up and shoot someone?"

"Of course not! No weapons are allowed." he chuckled "The fight continues until one of the fighters can not continue or yields. Anyone is allowed to challenge anyone regardless of rank, which is a great morale booster." they both winced as a turian was launched off his feet with a vicious uppercut. "But most importantly once a matter had been settled it is finished, regardless of who won or lost. Other than that, pretty much anything goes. By the way, the names Sgt. Krian Levanicus." he held out a talon and the man shook it.

"Um, nice to meet you I'm uh shit," he looked around astutely aware of how awkward it would be if he didn't come up with something. Awkwardly he racked his mind for something to give. "Um John," he glanced at the turian's beige colored face paint. "White, John White."

"So John White heh?" Krian scoffed, "What brings you here? I assume your some kind of specialist, what with traveling with a SPECTRE of all things. So what's your gig? Demolitions? CQB?"

The newly named John rubbed his shirt nervously, "Well no not exactly, you see..."

"Look out!" someone in the crowd yelled as one of the fighters was launched into the crowd and smacked into the Turian in front of him. The two of them fell backwards onto him and they all landed in a tangled up mess of limbs and scales. Pushing the weight of the unconscious alien off of him John struggled to his feet and snarled at the center of the ring where the impromptu turian cannonball had come from.

What met his glare was the largest Turian he had seen so far. Matching easily his own height and then some the giant beast threw up his arms in victory, his roar loud enough to drown out the crazed cheering of the crowd around him. John clenched his fists in anger as the two's eyes met with the promised force of two titan's clashing.

"Human!" Dropping his hands the turian soldier pointed towards him and beckoned with a single talon. "Have you come to watch your betters do what your race never could?"

John looked to his left and right but not surprisingly the crowd had parted around him leaving him in the line of fire alone. Stupidly he pointed to himself as if to ask 'What me?'

"Yes you weakling! Do you see any other weakling primates here among us men?!" his declaration was met with a raucous tide of chuckling from the other turians present. "Come dog! You have to earn the right to stand among us warriors! Pay the price if you can!"

_'What the hell is this guys problem?' _he seethed, _'Fucking racist bastard.' _

The irony of that comment did not lose itself on him. He was well aware of these feelings of distaste for anything not human he had been getting for the past few hours since he had awoken. They were undoubtedly the remnants of his previous life seeping out of his subconsciousness and he had just taken them for his natural state of being. But it was different excusing it in himself and seeing it directed at him for the first time. Actually it was downright unsettling being a hypocrite.

_'Man, I wonder if I sound like that?' _he wondered before deciding what he was going to do, in fact the only thing he felt he could do. He began to shrug his jacket off, but was stopped as Krian gripped his arm in a vice grip.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" he hissed and tried to pull him back, "That's Guron, he's a monster, I've only seen him beaten once and that was Captain Tiber."

However he wasn't going to be deterred and merely pulled away, however the Turian grabbed his arm again. "What are we supposed to tell your SPECTRE if you get hurt?"

"Hey, all I got to do is say I yield right? How bad could it be?" he pushed forward again and dropped his jacket on the ground followed shortly by his shirt. The crowd parted before him until he came clear and came face to face with the mighty Guron.

"What you think you're doing?" he chuckled as he wiped blue blood of on his pant leg and stretched his arms behind his back.

"I guess I'm proving a point to myself." John replied as he raised up his guard and assumed what he knew to be a well balanced stance.

"Ill try not to break you too badly! I wouldn't want to ruin the Asari's plaything!" the Turian sneered and cracked his knuckles. "I'll return you to her in a...ooompf!"

John snapped his hand back into position as Guron's head was spun around like a top. "Less talking, let's just fucking do this!" With a blood thirsty battle cry the alien soldier charged in and the human did the same, their fists meeting in a titanic release of violent energy.

It wasn't even about beating the guy, he just had to get some of these erroneous thoughts sorted out. Or at least get them bashed straight out of his skull.

*()*

Tela watched the holo-projector as it played edited clips from the boarding action on the _Moonside Glory. _She alternated between watching the clips and observing the reactions of the assembled leadership. It was a mixed bag, some watching blankly and others expressing outright confusion.

"I thought the Rachni were wiped out centuries ago!" Captain Tiber was one of the latter, "How could this of happened and without the Council knowing of this!"

"It is the truth Captain, however I believe you all understand the sensitive nature of this, so as of now I am instating a communications blackout."

"Wise consideration, highly " somebody called out from the back of the room and she was surprised when a familiar figure moved forward.

"Veelan." she acknowledged as her fellow SPECTRE made himself known. The Salarian had obviously gotten on board before her, there had to be a reason for that. Though that could wait for later, right now this mission briefing took top priority.

"What you have just seen only occurred less than seventy two hours ago. We are unable to confirm whether or not these creatures have been bio-engineered or are of the original strain that invaded Citadel Space during the Rachni wars. In addition we have have been so far unable to ascertain the motives behind Westablish Industries transportation of these creatures. We have been unable to make contact with their headquarters on Fehl Prime and I believe that it has been liquidated back into the Terran Heart."

It was true the C-SEC investigators who were tasked with contacting the wayward corporation had failed and she was beginning to suspect that the company had been nothing more than a shell, a facsimile for the militants to channel money and resources into.

"That leaves us with two avenues of investigation to pursue." Truthfully there was three but she didn't have a plan to deal with the System's Alliance citizens who appeared to be bankrolling the operation. True she could initiate action against them but in the end it would be pointless, the Terran Heart having either gained enough life to function independently or enough influence to simply secure more backers. There certainly wasn't any shortage of wealthy xenophobes in the human's ranks. It was better to just wait and allow the regular authorities to have their sway.

"The first being the facility that the Rachni were being transported and the point of origin, Fehl Prime. A beginning and an end for us to uncover that will reveal the whole operation." she nodded to the communications officer who flipped to the next slide. "Our current target is the Westablish Facility on Bekenstien. These are the images we pulled from the governmental database of the facility in question." she talked through the defenses and what was known. Finishing up with her portion of the briefing she moved the process along. "Captain Tiber what is your fighting complement on the Furious."

"Yes milady," he responded composing himself and straightening to attention, "As it stands now I have two squads of Presidium Guards present on-board. They are equipped for crowd pacification and light engagements, with two Mantis gunships for quick insertion and close air support. In addition myself and my executive officer are both competent biotics." Tela noted to herself in the future that she would need to make sure to request heavier troops. She understood that the Presidium Guards had been nearby and possessing of the required security clearances but they were not shock troops. The elite troops were more akin to body guards and police men than regular line troops. Though they were exceptionally trained and disciplined so they would undoubtedly acquit themselves well.

"I understand," Tela took a moment to integrate this new information into her thinking process, "First squad will breach here at the loading docks and establish a foothold in the main warehouse, where we will set up our command post. Second squad will inserted on the roof and clear downwards, putting pressure on any opposition they encounter. The purpose of this is to drive the op-for out of the facility and into the outer ring, which will be composed of local authorities and the two gunships."

"Hrmpf!" a voice interrupted and Tela gave Veelan the floor. "Unwise to trust local authorities with information. Corruption most likely prolific."

"Which is why when I contact them I will not have them establish the cordon until we have already began our assault." she assured, already having already taken this into account. "However this means that the assault is going to have to be quick and efficient if we are to maintain enough momentum to accomplish the mission."

"SPECTRE Vasir, what is our end state?" Tiber asked and Tela answered with a continued explanation.

"Our mission is to seize and destroy any specimens and research material related to the organisms encountered on the _Moonside Glory_. Also gather intelligence as to refine and determine future courses of action." she paused for a second and sipped from a glass of water on the briefing table. "At this time the level of resistance is unknown but expect at least a squad sized-element of security personnel."

"I assure you my men will be more than enough to hand some security guards." Tiber scoffed and Tela inwardly scowled. Confidence was good but arrogance was undoubtedly a serious pitfall. Through her studies of history it was easy to decipher that hubris was the deciding factor in many of the galaxy's biggest flops.

Unfortunately that seemed to be one of the driving factors behind the Turian Hierarchy. The most recent example being the Relay 314 incident. While it had been a rather short affair it had been particularly bloody and had only been salvaged by the combined diplomatic efforts of the Asari and Salarian governments to douse the powder keg before it could explode. While the Turians would of inevitably emerged victorious it was certain that such a conflict would of cost millions of lives both human and Turian. A pointless conflict but it did have the benefit of uplifting the human society to the galactic community.

The following economic boom had been beneficial to all parties but most importantly had introduced the Citadel community to the wonder of Medi-gel. Truly the human's greatest achievement, the bio-genetically active salve was truly a godsend to the universe, saving countless lives in both the civilian and military sectors. Though technically illegal under the Citadel's genetic modification laws, its copyright holder and manufacturer the Sirta Foundation was given a pass.

"Unwise to take the threat lightly." Veelan chastised the Turian Captain for her, "Better to enter the situation expecting the worst, then hope for the best."

"Yes SPECTRE of course, I meant no disrespect." the Turian reassured, but Tela could tell the apology was given halfheartedly.

"Good, now we will discuss the communication plan." The trip to Bekenstien would take a more than a few hours using the FTL and most of that time would be spent refining the plan. She still hadn't slept in over a day but that would have to wait until after the planning process was complete. Still she was slightly annoyed when the doors to the conference room opened and Turian crew members bearing plates of food and beverages entered. At once all conversation stopped as the Turian soldiers lined up and got their food. Tela shook in aggravation as they sat down and began to eat.

Seeing there was nothing else to do she got a plate from the non-dextro fare that had been provided and chose a seat at the far end of the room. Picking at her food she looked up as someone approached.

"Mind if I join you?" Veelan said not waiting for her answer as he sat down across from her, "Your first time working with the Presidium guards?"

"They are different." she answered, "Very pomp and circumstance."

"Comes with the job unfortunately, but very competent."

"I see." A long period of silence followed as the two ate before she spoke what was on her mind. "What are you doing here Perrus?" the Salarian chewed and swallowed his food before answering.

"Council sent me to provide assistance. Due to the importance of mission better to have two operatives on site." he calmly provided but Tela took that explanation with a grain of salt. While she greatly respected the man nonetheless she was slightly irked at his sudden appearance.

"I appreciate the gesture, but remember I am the lead on this mission." she left it at that and waited for his response.

"Of course. I am merely here for support. Defer to you on operational details." he assured her but she couldn't help but think the red skinned man was holding something back.

"Excellent."

After about an hour of brainstorming they had ironed out the plan to the point where Tela was satisfied with its current incarnation. The Turian staff at this point had filtered out of the room in ones and twos leaving herself, Veelan and Captain Tiber remaining in the room.

The Salarian SPECTRE had been suspiciously quiet after their little talk, mostly standing in the back and taking notes on his omni-tool. She had taken note of this but had decided to let it be. No doubt she would figure out what it all meant when the time was right.

"Milady I apologize, I believe I am needed on the bridge." Tiber reached out with his hand to her, no doubt to do something overly familiar, but she merely waved him away. A brief look of consternation crossed his face before he bowed and made his exit. Leaving her alone with her fellow SPECTRE.

"Vasir, we must trust each other if we are to work together." Veelan spoke as if reading her mind. "My intentions, only in the Councils best interest."

"I meant no offense Perrus, only wished to remind you that this is my mission." She was perhaps a little harsh but she wanted to get the point across. Too many missions in her commando past had been muddled and made overtly complex by an unclear chain of command. Plus she could admit it was a matter of pride. Her first mission and she would be damned if she had to share the glory with one of her seniors.

"I understand. Regroup with your companions?"

"That is probably for the best." Who knows what kind of trouble Levra had managed to wreck while she had been gone, Tela was actually surprised the ship hadn't gone up in flames. Also she was concerned about leaving the human alone for so long. He was vulnerable as he was now and she wanted to keep a close eye on him for the time being.

If he was going to be of any use to her she would have to instill a bond of trust between them. Something that would take plenty of time and interaction, especially if they were going to overcome the man's disturbing racist bias.

_'He's probably sitting curled up in a ball somewhere in fear from being surrounded by all these _aliens_!' _she scoffed and left the room with her unwelcome guest in tow.

*()*

The first signs that something was wrong when she entered the hanger was the shouting. It sounded like a damn Biotiball match with all the hooting and hollering.

The second thing was the huge crowd of Turians, which had nearly doubled in size since she left, which was gathered in the far corner.

The third and probably most annoying thing only became more apparent when she got closer. As she approached she noticed something blue and white bobbing up and down on one of the turian's shoulders.

_'So that's where you got off to.' _Indeed that's where she found Levra, riding the shoulders of a coverall clad crew member, clapping her hands and giggling at some unseen spectacle.

"Come on monkey! You can do it! Knock that big bastards head off!" she shouted to be followed seconds later by "Or get your ass beat! Whatever!"

_'Monkey? Oh goddess dammit!' _she mentally groaned and pushed herself through the crowd, leaving Veelan behind. As she finally made it through the mass of cheering turians she saw that her fears were indeed warranted.

Her human and a giant turian were clenched together in the center of the circle, both men dripping with sweat. Their chest's heaved and it was obvious that they had been at this for a long while. However out of the both of them the human looked much worse for wear, especially his face, which seemed as if he had played punching bag for a gang of drunk krogans. Not to say the turian was completely unscathed however, his face wall also bruised and it looked like somebody had taken a club to his arm.

"Guron! Guron! Guron! Guron!" All around her the crowd cheered and she couldn't help but feel a tinge of pride that the human was holding his own against the giant turian. Though mostly she was angry that he had gotten himself into this situation in the first place.

The two men were still struggling, though this Guron clearly had the upper hand and his superior strength and reach were beginning to tell as he slowly pulled the human's arms apart. The man saw this and tried with all his might to fight it, arms quivering and muscles bulging, but he couldn't stop the others brutal power. So instead he threw a kick at the beasts shin. It was meant to put him off balance but only caused a roar of pain and a massive retaliatory head butt.

The massive blow sent the human flying to his knees and the crowd roared in approval as their champion moved in for the final blow, but the man saw had predicted this and shot out like a wrestler. Grabbing and leg he heaved upwards with a mighty grunt, ignoring the headlock the turian put him in and managed to drop the giant on the floor with a meaty slap. This also gathered a massive surge in excitement from the spectators, one white faced turian in the front row yelling with great gusto. Alas the human's victory was short lived and the giant managed to bodily throw him off with ease and get his footing back. Amazingly however so did her human, standing on wobbly feet as he wavered but fought through the pain and brought his hands up into a guard.

Who knows how long the battle would of continued but they would never find out when a booming voice cut through the roar of the crowd like a knife through hot butter.

"Attention! Officer on deck!"

Immediately every turian in the room snapped to attention, including the giant in the ring, as Captain Tiber pushed his way through the crowd followed by his XO.

"Just what is going on here! Senior Sergeant, report!" he snapped and the turian NCO spoke.

"Sir, the human..." whatever he was going to say was interrupted by the sound of a meaty fist hitting a face and a body slamming into the ground with a hearty thud.

Everyone turned to look at the human as he stared dumbly at his fist, then to the mighty Guron laying splayed out unconscious on the ground then back to his fist again. Chuckling he placed the offending hand behind his head.

"Che, I guess I got him." he admitted bashfully to the shocked turian faces, faces that were beginning to show signs of rage. Soon the silence was broken as the assembled soldier began to murmur angrily, a few even booing him outright. Dropping into his guard again he snarled at the soon to be lynch mob. "Well fuck you, you overgrown birds! Who's next? Eh, who wants some!"

"Oooooh, win by K.O.! I knew you could do it monkey!" From the back of the crowd the annoying voice of Levra rang out and the turians in the front began to crack their talons and move closer.

Spinning around he pointed to a Presidium Guard that had inched forward out of the crowd. "What about you! Heh, you want some of this! Come on! I'll take all of you on!"

Sensing that soon she'd be dealing with a serious inter-species incident, Tela took this opportunity to stalk forward and sucker punch the human in the lower back. Due to the similarity in Asari-human physiology she knew this to be where his kidneys were located and due to the way he hunched over in extreme pain her aim was dead on.

"Idiot!" she yelled, grabbing him by the ear and dragging him out of the ring. "Do you know what a colossal fool you look like right now!"

"Ow, ow, ow!" he whimpered and thankfully the turians began to laugh as the former target of their hate was embarrassed publicly by a diminutive woman. Exiting the group, she led the man further away, pushing back her pilot when she jumped down off the turian man's shoulders and scampered up to them.

"Great fight ape-man, especially liked the part where you caught his fist with your face!" she mocked as they left her behind. Tela didn't stop dragging him until they were out of sigh behind the gunships and only then did she release her wiggling captive.

"What the hell woman?" but she stopped his protestations with a hard slap to the face.

"What the hell indeed." she crossed her arms and regarded him with steely eyes. "Now, would you care to explain what exactly it was you thought you were doing while I was way?"

"Well you see," he said, rubbing his bruised jaw, "I, uh, thought I should meet the crew you know?"

"By brawling with them like some common criminal?" she asked incredulously, staring at his almost completely swollen shut eye with some satisfaction. He shook his head and spat a wad of blood onto the floor.

"Not exactly, I mean it's tradition."

"Tradition?"

"Yah, tradition and," with a sudden lurch the ship shifted as it finally got underway the artificial gravity compensating to keep them grounded. Too bad he was already off balance and found himself careening forward into her, taking them over to ungracefully fall to the deck.

Struggling to extricate herself from his arms she paused when he barely croaked something out through battered lips.

"What was that?" she demanded as he recovered from the air he had just had taken from him. Taking a deep breathe he managed to speak loud enough to hear.

"John, my names John."


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer**

The author acknowledges lack of ownership of Mass Effect and any associated intellectual property.

Tela Vasir: Hard Point

VI

Tela's stomach churned as the Mantis gunship lurched into a steep dive thousands of meters above Bekenstien's capital city of Milgrom and for a second she missed Levra's effortless piloting. The young Asari had attempted to get Cpt. Tiber to allow her to fly, but he had insisted that one of his pilots take the helm. Instead he had allowed her to sit in the co-pilots seat and observe.

This had pissed off Levra but Tela had managed to placate her with a promise to allow her to fly at a later date. She guessed it had something to do with the new design of the craft, just released for full time production this year. Of course Levra couldn't shut up about it, flooding the comm's channel with boring talk about "duel vectored controlling thrust and thermal decay systems". Eventually she had had the Turian sitting behind her discretely disconnect the babbling woman's head-set.

In the blessed silence she mentally reviewed the plan they had drafted just hours ago back in the _Furious Justice's_ conference room. She had contacted the local police force in route, spoke to a Chief Johnson who after a great deal of virtual handshaking had placed over three hundred armed Special Response Team members at her disposal.

As they made entry she had finally revealed their orders, setting them to cordoning off the Westablish facility. With perfect timing the headset in her helmet crackled with incoming traffic.

"SPECTRE Vasir this is Chief Johnson, (zzzz) SRT teams (zzzz) position." the police chiefs came in distorted and rife with static, "Do you (zzzzz) them to (zzzz)?"

"Chief Johnson, say again your last over?"

"(zzzz) teams in position, do (zzzz) move in?" she hit the key button on her omnitool frantically. Of course the blundering fools would ruin this operation even before it began.

"Negative! Negative, do not move from your security positions, do you copy?" After a brief period of loaded silence the radio crackled again.

"Roger."

_'Idiot, almost sounded disappointed.' _she seethed and busied herself with checking her recently acquired M-8 Avenger making it sure it was properly synced to her H.U.D.'s aim-point software, running the built in in targeting simulator. Satisfied that the digital zero was a good as it was going to get, she collapsed the weapon and repeated the process with her pistol.

"Five minutes until insertion." the pilot informed over the intercom. The turians who had been sitting silently now began checking their weapons and armor, preparing for the combat drop. Captain Tiber who was sitting next to her placed his hand on her shoulder. She seriously needed to stop his aspirations before they went to far. She had noticed the looks he had been giving her since they had first met. Well aware of her appealing physical appearance, at times it was more of a burden than anything else.

"Tela, we will be landing soon. I think..."

"I am not deaf, _Captain_ Tiber." she waved his concern away as she reminded him of proper decorum. "Make sure your men are ready."

"Of course Milady." he sullenly replied and turned away from her. Ignoring his petulance she released the five point harness that had held her in place during the atmospheric entry. She needed to clear her head before they touched down. Her thoughts were a mess, jumbled and confused. She hadn't noticed it at first, but here in stressful anticipation it was becoming apparent that something was wrong.

_'Damn that human!' _it had been only after their ill-fated meld that this little problem had started. Her thoughts weren't her own and she couldn't keep him out of them. It was one of the reasons she had left him on board the ship, she had a hard time concentrating when he was around, like getting deja-vu. That and his face was still a pulped mess from that embarrassing debacle with the colossus of a turian.

Breathing in and out she managed to calm herself, this was no time to be thinking of anything else.

_'Damn you John!' _

*()*

John White leaned against the back wall of the turian frigate's CIC, observing the controlled chaos taking place on the operations deck below. Here and there, crew members, communication officers and technicians worked to keep the ship alive. Right in front of them the Presidium Guard's XO watched on the main holographic display as tactical icons representing the two Mantis gunships moved slowly towards the objective area.

Everybody had a part to play, well everyone except for him. That was bothering him a little bit.

_'She just had to leave me here. I understand why, but it's still pissing me off! Even the idiot got to go!" _He had to admit he was nervous about being left alone. Tela and Levra, as alien as they were, were still the most solid thing he could grasp on for the moment. With no one around that he knew, it was almost impossible to relax. No human's either and he felt like he was intruding more than ever.

Sure that Krian fellow had seemed alright, even congratulating him after the ill ending fight with a pat on the back; the rest of the turian's however would rather spit than look at him.

Similarly Tela sure had been pissed at him. More so after he had told her his new name and she got up off of him. She hadn't spoken a word to him after that, simply had boarded the transport when they had reached orbit around Bekenstien and left.

_'Without even a goodbye!' _

Not that he expected as much but at least let him know what he needed doing. He needed direction in his life; leaving him alone was possibly the worst thing that could happen at the moment.

Feeling worthless on the bridge he left the crowded room and started randomly walking around the ships halls. Soon the blue and gray walls began to look the same.

_'Fuck.' _he groaned realizing that he gotten lost. An almost impossible feat in such a small vessel but he succeeded at it anyways. Looking around for a sign of some kind he ducked into a side corridor, taking note of a armed and armored guard standing in front of a locked door at the end of the hallway. Seeing as there was nothing else he could do he started to approach the man but stopped when the turian leveled a shotgun at him.

"Keep moving human, this area is restricted." his voice was cold and metallic as it was projected from behind an opaque visor. John stopped short and held up his hands.

"Okay, okay, just I'm a little lost can you point me to the crew quarters?" the turian sighed and lowered his weapon.

"Go back the way you came and take a right, second door on the left."

"Thanks, what is this place exactly?"

"Brig, now get out of here before I _sucker punch _you." the turian spat then mumbled a curse under his breath. John threw him a last sardonic grin before he did an about face and headed towards the crew quarters. Perhaps his time was best spent sleeping, if he did then maybe Vasir and the others would be back by the time he woke up. He glanced back at the grumpy guard as he rounded the corner and laughed to himself.

_'Making friends everywhere I go.' _

*()*

"Blue light! Go! Go! Go!" someone screamed over the net and the rear of the Mantis gunship dropped with a hiss. Two carbon fiber rappelling robes were deployed out from the cabin ceiling and fell to the ground about fifty five meters below. The first pair of turians grabbed the ropes and dropped, traveling the distance in less than four seconds.

Tela waited for Captain Tiber and another turian to take the ropes before moving to the edge of the ramp. The ropes dangled loosely as the two of them hit the ground and moved out to fill the gaps in the crescent formation the other seven turians had deployed in. However this didn't concern Tela as with a simple step forward she toppled off the edge and into the whipping wind. Completing a full front flip like an expert tumbler, she landed in a crouch, her biotics flaring up as she decreased her body's mass to a fraction of what it normally would be.

From the crouch she sprinted to the nearest piece of cover, a low wall marking the beginning of the loading dock. Briefly she looked up and noticed second squads Mantis taking off from the roof, it's mission complete.

_'Good, time to get moving.' _"Captain, begin the operation."

"Acknowledged, Sgt. Hexari get your men to the door on the double."

"Yes, sir, Alpha team move to breach!" his first squad leader barked and a group of four Guards moved up to one side of the door. The third man in the stack prepped a entry charged and held it ready. However this wasn't necessary as the point man demonstrated one of the most important aspects to breaching, always check the door; which in this case opened without any sort of effort, the panels sliding apart to reveal a dimly lit warehouse beyond. As soon as the door opened the team rushed in, alternating going left and right as they cleared the room with expert precision.

Alarm bells went off in the back of Tela's head as they entered the building uncontested. Not that she had expected to be met with a tank at the door or something like that, but not even a security guard? That was unexpected. She would of told the men to be alert but they'd undoubtedly take it as an insult. Instead she opted to simply ignore out the obvious and go with the mission as planned.

"Captain, secure the beach head."

"Roger." he turned and sent bravo team in, before following. Tela traveled alongside him and took up position inside the protective perimeter the turians had erected inside. Individual soldiers were posted up on windows and doors, peering through but not in the openings. To the front and right was a pair of large doors, smaller than the one they had entered but still large nonetheless.

Now they just had to wait for second squad and SPECTRE Perrus to do their part.

*()*

Krian Levanicus stood on the roof of the Westablish building as he watched the salarian SPECTRE fiddle with the electronic lock on the door leading down into the building proper.

Hefting his Avenger he scanned off to the right of the roof, looking for targets that he doubted would appear.

"Fix terminal interlocking, run inter-looping countermeasure software." the salarian diligently worked on his omnitool, his fingers moving almost to quickly to be seen as he hacked the door. Soon enough the lock emitted a high-pitched beep and the reinforced door swung open on loose hinges. "Hack successful, Sgt, please initiate mission."

"Affirmative sir, Guron!" he called his massive team member forward, his gait still showing signs of his earlier tussle with the human. It had been a great fight and could of gone either way if it had been allowed to reach its climax. When the human had suckered Guron he had damn neared laughed his ass off. Sure it was a low blow but the big bastard needed to be knocked down a peg or two.

"Sure thing Sgt." the giants deep voice was calm but a little garbled, mandibles obviously swollen. He moved into position, switching on the tactical light attached to his Claymore shotgun. Usually a weapon on wielded by Krogans it was a perfect fit for the big man, its kick more than capable of dislocating a normal person's shoulder.

Filing in behind his immense point-man Krian moved down the stairs. The rest of his team followed him and he could see Bravo team moving up in the rear.

"Drone out!" the SPECTRE suddenly announced and little holographic ball of light shot past Guron and disappeared down into the dimly lit hallway. "Eyes and ears, will scout ahead, turn off interface of course."

"Of course." Krian muttered as they reached the bottom of the stairs and entered the main building. The first thing they did was encounter a two way intersection, one way going left and the other going right. "Hey Sren, fringe or tails for who goes which way." he jokingly asked the team leader of Bravo on a private channel.

"I'll take whatever way the SPECTRE doesn't go!" his friend laughed and he was inclined to agree. Soon enough they got there answer and his friend got his choice.

"Sgt Krian accompany me left, the drone detects abnormalities ahead."

"Roger." he turned his freq back to his private channel. "Shit!"

"What was that Sgt?" he silently cursed, apparently the SPECTRE had superhuman hearing.

_'Must of set the presets wrong' _"Oh nothing sir, just cursing this place!"

"Acknowledge, odd. Let's move Sgt."

With that they parted ways with Bravo and began to move into deeper into the complex. Before long they were completely lost in the byzantine passageways of this place.

The longer they pressed on the greater the feeling of uneasiness grew in the pit of his stomach. This was unlike any sort of research facility or business he had ever seen. For one there was nobody here! Sure it was a big facility but it was the middle of the day, on a weekday to boot! But so far their hadn't been a single soul in sight. No lab techs not security guards and no business suit clad execs greeted them as they moved down the empty corridors.

The second thing was the floor plans. Now he had a copy of the buildings blueprints that had been provided for the squads during their patrol briefings. While he was no architect he could tell that what he was seeing now and what he had been briefed did not match in the slightest. Too many blind turns, intersections and even dead ends, the place was built like a warren. There was no large rooms, no work spaces, laboratories or even cubicles. Not a scrap of furnishing was present either which led to the third oddity.

Whoever the Westablish folks had hired for an interior decorator must have been more used to working with dungeons than designing a sterile, ergonomic workplace. The lighting was terrible for one, nothing but dim florescent bulbs set in every fifteen meters leaving long gaps of shadowed areas. The walls, ceilings and floors were all uniformly gray cold cement.

Finally there was the air around him, his armor informing him that it was a chilly four degrees Celsius and with a whopping humidity of nearly ninety percent. Who the hell in their right mind would want that?

Guron held up a hand, freezing the procession in their tracks.

"Sgt, there was a contact on the tracker." the big man was referencing the motion tracker that was a standard addition to most armor hardware suites.

"Location?"

"Hard to say, it's gone dark, just a ghost." the big man whispered, clearly the spooky atmosphere was getting to him too.

"Drone shows nothing, please continue Sgt." Veelan ordered, "Maintain spacing."

The formation continued again, slower this time, until they reached another one of those damn intersections.

"Which way sir?"

"Continue left." the order came but he barely heard it, instead his amplified microphone picked up what sounded to be a faint clicking, like two ceramic platters rubbing against together on a waiters dolly.

"Guron, do you hear anything?" he whispered as he brought his men to a halt again.

"What are you talking about, the only thing I hear is you yammering on about...shit, shit! We got movement!"

"Where? How many?" Krian asked, scanning to the right and to the left with his weapon up to his cheek ready to fire.

"Shit they're everywhere, I'm counting four, five, no eight contacts coming this way!" He checked his own motion tracker and verified Guron's information.

"All right men, get ready for contact! Mulark, Surez, take the right, I want disciplined volley and stay off those damn walls! Guron you're with me on the left. If your shields drop fall back to the middle to recharge." the men around him snapped to action and he looked on in pride.

"Sgt equipment must be faulty, the drone doesn't see anything." Veelan suggested, strangely enough the SPECTRE wasn't wearing a helmet thus his lack of H.U.D.

"Sir the contact _are_ coming! Twenty meters out!" he scanned the hallway, his light revealing nothing but blank floors and walls. Switching his light off he changed his visor to night-vision mode.

_'What the hell is that?' _something like a shadow skittered across the ceiling. _'What the...' _he switched to thermals and almost dropped his weapon in fear.

"Ceiling now!" three pairs of lights snapped upwards and revealed a horde of Rachni crawling towards them on the ceiling, their chitinous plates making the scraping sound he had heard before. For a second the blinding light disoriented the creatures, but they reacted quickly losing all pretense of stealth and rushing forward in a maddening rush.

There was a boom and one of the insectivore creatures was messily bisected by Guron's shotgun followed by the other team members opening up on the other side. Krian fired and tore the antenna from one of the Rachni the stumps spewing out a foul looking black ichor.

"Switch to incinerator rounds!" he barked the order and waited for Guron to comply before switching over himself. Soon the hallway was filled with red and orange streaks, looking for the all the world that they were firing laser beams at their exotic aggressors.

The rounds were effective though, burning through muscle and sinew with ease, even immolating some of the luckier ones.

Suddenly a horrible scream came over the net as Mulark dropped his weapon, his armored hands sizzling and popping as the glob of acid that had coated them ate at his flesh like a hungry varren.

"Mulark!" Surez yelled and tried to pull his friend back away from the encroaching horde. However he couldn't drag him fast enough and the screaming turian was ripped away into the thick of the Rachni as they tore into him like wild animals.

"Fall back! Peel back the way we came, Veelan go go go!" The SPECTRE needed no further encouraging, firing his sub machine gun one more time and then moving back down the hallway.

Krian prepped a grenade, set the timer and rushed to the other side, next to Surez. "Go Surez, I've got this side."

"Roger." the other man said placidly as he broke away. Looking to see he was clear, Krian tossed the grenade, an incendiary, where it exploded, thankfully ending Mulark's life and his tortured screaming. "Guron! Go!"

"Moving!" the big man fired two more rounds and sprinted down the hallway, Krian waited until he was clear before following suit. He hugged the left side of the wall, allowing his fellows to fire around him and suppress the enemies attempting to follow.

Using the canalized nature of the intersection they gained a critical advantage, cutting down the ugly buggers as soon as they showed their heads. Soon enough the flow became a trickle. Eventually they stopped coming and the motion tracker went silent. The only movement coming from the end of the room was the flickering flames that still licked at the edges of some of the Rachni corpses.

"Sir, we need to notify Bravo and SPECTRE Vasir before they walk into the same trap we did!" he panted, checking on his two remaining men for injuries and functioning equipment.

"Of course, notify them please Sgt. I need to take samples." Perrus, seemingly not out of breath in any way, moved back down the corridor and bent down next to one of the more intact specimens. Examining it he lifted the things head and rotated the limp flesh from side to side. "Interesting, different genus perhaps, coloration abnormal, charcoal color blends with current environment."

While the SPECTRE was busy doing whatever it was he was doing, Krian keyed his helmet mike. "Sgt Bilus this is Alpha over." However after a few minutes of static he tried again. "Bravo, any Bravo element this is Alpha over!" again nothing but a burst of static. "Sir, I can't reach Bravo team or the first squad leader!"

"Troubling, try command net." the salarian replied, not looking up from his grisly investigation.

"Roger." Krian flipped the frequency toggle over to the command net. "Guard Leader this is one alpha, alpha has engaged enemy organisms code named "Plague" over!" again nothing, "Any guard element this is one alpha please respond!" This was starting to get serious, there was no reason why their radios shouldn't be working, not unless...

"SPECTRE, someones jamming us!" it was the only logical conclusion. Veelan turned from his site exploitation, a blood filled syringe held between steady fingers and dropped the container in a pouch on his armor.

"My conclusion as well, a trap, though purpose? Unknown, testing facility maybe, explains lack of guards." he stood and typed a few lines on his omnitool.

"A testing facility? What the hell are they testing then with guard dogs like these around!" Guron growled and kicked on of the dead rachni.

"Us."

*()*

"Negative communications with second squad sir!" one of the turian soldiers informed Cpt. Tiber and Tela shook her head in displeasure. This was not going as planned and already the whole situation just felt wrong.

"Well keep trying! It must be interference of some kind from the facility!" the guard captain yelled, furious with the loss of command over his men. "Milady it seems..."

"Yes I monitored," this reeked of a trap, of if not a trap then a preset planned response to an armed incursion. At this point there should have been some resistance, a terrorist organization trafficking in such illegal and dangerous goods would inevitably have some preventive measures in place to prevent such a trespassing. It was obvious their communications were being jammed, able to communicate with people in the nearby vicinity but unable to raise the other squad or even the Mantis gunships outside. She needed a decision, they were already committed and she didn't want to embarrass herself in front of Veelan if they turned out to be a false alarm. However as she had said before, arrogance was the downfall of many a persons, perhaps prudence was the best option here. "Captain have the squad fall back, we will reattempt contact once we're outside."

"But Tela, we must maintain the initiative!"

"Follow my orders Captain, get the men moving!" she didn't have time for his bullshit, something was going on here that was outside the norm and she needed to nip this in the bud before it turned into the full blown disaster her gut was suggesting.

"Yes. First squad fall back to the courtyard!" a chorus of acknowledgment came over the net and the soldiers began to retreat. However as soon as the first group reached the door they had entered they encountered a problem.

"Sir! The door it's locked!" one of them called back, the glowing holographic display reading red as he attempted to open it.

"What? It was open!" Tiber shouted angrily, "It doesn't matter! Get the breach team up here, I want that breach team up there on the double!" Instead of a breach team what he got was a sudden flash of light and a holographic display which was projected from the ceiling.

As the image took shape it resolved itself to be a white triangle circled by interlocking squares, the Westablish Industries logo if her memory served. Simultaneously a dry nasally voice was projected from a single speaker in the corner of one of the walls.

Tap, tap, tap, "Is this thing on?" muffled voices in the background, sounding like somebody arguing then switching a toggle. "Ah, yes, much better. Well SPECTRE welcome to our humble facility here on Bekenstien. We've been expecting you." Tela's H.U.D. identified the speech as the human language of English.

"This is a council sanctioned operation, you are obstructing my investigation. I demand that you disable all security measures and surrender for interrogation." she announced over her helmets external speaker.

"I'm afraid I'm unable to comply SPECTRE, you see that facility is completely automated." the unknown man chuckled and a red warning light began to flash on the bottom of her visor. "I would get a move on alien, that is unless you want die without ever getting a taste of what is to come!" with that the voice and the projection disappeared.

Tela expanded the environmental hazard icon on her H.U.D and analyzed the contents. Aluminum and nano-fuel particles were showing up in the local atmosphere in steadily increasing amounts, as if they were being pumped in. That didn't make any sense, the mixture wasn't deadly and even if it was they were all had air-scrubbers in their helmets.

_'What could possibly be the reason for that. Unless, oh no!' _she quickly sprinted towards one of the doors on the far end that had opened, shouting as she went. "Captain! Get your men out of there now!"

For once the turian didn't ask questions, possibly hearing the deadly seriousness and hint of panic in her voice. The nine turians dropped what they were doing as he barked the order and the began to move towards the exits.

They weren't fast enough, in fact as soon as Tela crossed through the doorway a blast door began to descended slowly from overheard but gaining speed as it made the trip downwards. The first turian made it through, crouching as the door reached shoulder height. Gaining more and more speed the door dropped to her knees.

Just in the nick of time the next turian made it, literally sliding under the gap on his rear. Tela was slightly relieved to see the symbol for captain on the guards breastplate, at least the chain of command would be intact.

A muffled banging came from the other side of thick door and through a porthole she could see a turian trapped on the other side. Panicked from being separated from his fellow the soldier, perhaps not thinking clearly, stepped back from the vessel and appeared to fire his weapon to no effect.

Tela could imagine the confusion on the man's face, right before what she had feared came to pass.

With a flash of blinding light the doors window was whited out, the very air igniting as the chemical mixture reached the proper levels. Instantly everything in the room was incinerated as the thermobaric explosion reached its climax. What wasn't turned to ash would be killed by the immense pressure wave; even through the hardened door Tela's head rung from the concussive blast.

With what would have been a eardrum rupturing whoomp if not for their helmets noise canceling feature, the fire burned itself out, running through all the oxygen in the room.

She shook her head, trying to clear the sudden headache that had appeared. When she raised her head, she was treated to the sight of Cpt. Tiber ineffectively try and beat the door down.

"We have to get inside! They're still in there! We have to get inside!" his fists scuffed the paint, but did little in the way of any real damage. Tela was starting to doubt the so called elite nature of the troops provided to her by the Council, well at least their leadership.

"Captain, they are gone, I need you to compose yourself!" she ordered, helping the other Turian to his feet. "The mission will still proceed."

"My men! They need me!" he cried and she rolled her eyes in exasperation, something she had been doing a lot more often lately. She pointed her aiming reticule at Tiber, the IFF identifying him as friend. She opened up her tools on her omnitool and opened up a private two way communication channel.

"Captain, I need you to calm down right now. If you don't, I will be sure to mention this in my after action report to the council!"

The man froze and slowly turned to her. "You wouldn't dare!"

"I certainly would. Now get ready to move." she un-holstered her assault rifle and reopened the open comms. "Private, lead the way." she spoke to the other unnamed turian and the three of them marched off into the belly of the beast.

*()*

Levra looked down on the nondescript building below them as they hovered in the air above. It had been over thirty minutes since they had last heard from the ground party and she was starting to worry.

If anything happened to her new found boss she didn't know what she'd do. _'I guess I could go back to Thessia and fly the private circuit again. Back to mother.' _she shuddered at the thought, _'On second thought maybe better to take up piracy in the Terminus.' _

It was certainly poor prospects either way and if it was within her power she would make sure that wouldn't happen. _'She's probably fine anyways! Just doing some super-secret spy stuff, building up the tension!' _

Still she couldn't shake the feeling that something was horribly wrong.

*()*

John was bored out of his skull. Well not really, his skull was fine, it was what was outside it that was so goddamn boring.

All of a sudden a strange feeling bubbled up from the bottom of his stomach, a feeling of such impending doom that he had to clutch his guts in pure agony! His eyes bulged with pressure and his insides twisted with sudden uncomfortableness.

The sound of extreme gastric distress broke the tense silence and he jumped to his feet with a sense of extreme urgency. There was a mission to be accomplished, no matter what the cost he needed to succeed.

_'Now where the hell are the bathrooms!?'_

*()*

Deep in the bowels of a research facility hidden from human eyes a hundred meters under the ground a short man in a white lab coat fiddled with some controls on a panel full of blinking lights.

In front of him a monitor showed the scorched remains of the Bekenstien's facility's loading bay, still smoldering piles of empty armor littering the room like discarded shells of devoured crustaceans.

"How are things progressing Dr. Kao?" a medium sized man in elegant formal wear asked from behind the scientist, causing the little man to jump in surprise.

"Oh, Mr. Rodriguez you nearly gave me coronary!" Kao nervously laughed, taking off his glasses and fogging them with his breath. "As you can see, the test subjects have entered the facility. There is also a second group that entered from the rooftop, they have already been in contact with Type-3 specimens."

"And?"

"Oh um, the engagement proceeded mostly along the predicted path. I must suggest increasing adrenal gland production in the future generations, their reflexes were a bit slow, well below the optimum threshold."

"Enemy casualties?"

"Let's see. First engagement, resulted in one test subject fatality and eight specimen premature termination." he flipped a page in an old style notebook that he had picked up, "Second engagement, ah! Four specimen terminations and five xenological fatalities!" he sounded especially proud of this achievement.

"That is quite a variation Dr, we must achieve optimum lethality if we are to reach our goals in time for celebration."

"Of course sir, keep in mind though that this test is merely testing individual combat capability, field implementation will be conducted in much higher quantities of specimens. Not to mention the first group had a SPECTRE with them!"

"I understand Dr. However," the man approached the diminutive scientist and placed his hand on his shoulder, digging his fingers painfully into his collar bone, "we will not accept failure. This has to go perfectly."

"I, I understand sir!" he squeaked "If only you let me use a larger test group I could..."

"Out of the question! We've already lost the element of surprise with that _Moonside Glory_ debacle, we can't risk public exposure." he released his grip and stepped past Kao to watch the monitor beyond, now showing a group of three moving down one of the many hallways. An Asari and two turians. The asari was tagged as Tela Vasir, recently promoted and if their information was correct also responsible for the boarding action conducted on their transport a few days ago. "The council will aid us, no doubt keeping a tight lid on this."

"Yes sir. The alien curs are almost laughable in their predictability."

"Indeed doctor," he turned away from the monitor and stepped away, "When you have what you need, burn out the facility. There is no reason for us to leave anything behind."

"Of course, will be going to Fehl Prime?"

"No, we have reason to believe that site had been compromised. As we speak the facility is being relocated to the beta site. My associate," he gestured behind him as something enormous moved in the shadows, "will escort you off planet and to the new facility after your done."

Out from the blackness a titan of a man moved forward, his pitch black armor helping him blend seamlessly with his surroundings. Standing at what had to be well over two meters tall the silent colossus stood with his arms crossed and Dr. Kao gulped at the sight of the Bloodletter pattern pistol strapped to his hip.

"Well, I see everything here is proceeding as planned, I bid you adieu gentlemen. _Dominatur in omni terra."_ he intoned.

"_Anima nostra sit ei!"_ the other two men replied, bowing their heads in veneration, after which the finely adorned man made his exit, leaving the man of science and the silent giant alone, deep beneath the ignorant bustling streets of Bekenstien's capital city.


End file.
